Rise of the Forbidden
by Aeron Solo
Summary: Abilityshipping & Gracefulshipping. Cipher returns allied with Aizen. Ash, Anabel, Winona, Wallace, meet them firsthand. Who is Anabel's mentor? A former captain of the Gotei Thirteen. He isn't entirely human, but may be humanity's only hope... CLOSED
1. The Beginning

_A number of scientists were standing in front of a crystal containment cylinder filled with a strange liquid. Within it was a boy, about six years old, with jet-black hair and green robes._

_"Sir, the subject is developing quite well. His spiritual powers much higher than that of Arceus."_

_"Good. Soon we will have the supreme power over the universe at our disposal." The lead scientist mused. "Then we can dispose of the one in the next tube…" He murmured, glancing at the boy's brother in the next cylinder, who had been created at the same time as the first but hadn't received the same genetic coding. The first one had aged much more quickly in the tube, so they were positive that the other would prove unnecessary._

_"Sir! We have a problem!" a scientist at a monitor __called._

_"What is it?"_

_"SB1's consciousness has gone into hyperdrive! He's awake!_

_"What? It's too early!" shouted another scientist."_

_"Don't worry. As long as he contains the obedience coding we should be alright."_

_The boy's eyes suddenly flared open. They were a piercing emerald, with unusual golden specks. Fascinated, the lead scientist leaned closer._

_Apparently, it was the wrong thing to do. The boy recoiled, then held up his hands to the cylinder._

_"Sir, we have bad news." The scientist at the monitor said._

_"What is it this time?"_

_"We double-checked SB1's genetic coding, and the obedience codes are totally not included."_

_"WHAT??!!"_

_"Yes sir. This one's a wild card. He could break loose any minute if he wanted to."_

_As they spoke, the boy narrowed his eyes, and the crystal began cracking. A moment later it splintered into a thousand shards that exploded away, ruining equipment and creating chaos._

_"Contain him!" shouted a man. A man held up his hand and let loose a volley of fireballs. The boy dodged, then smashed the cylinder that contained his brother wide open and pulled the other boy out, then proceeded to flee, rapidly shimmering out of view and quickly reappearing a ways off._

_"Contain them if possible! Kill them if not!" roared the lead scientist, pulling toward him a large tidal wave._

_The boy held up his hand and froze the tidal wave in its tracks. Then he turned and let loose a deadly volley of lightning bolts…__

* * *

_

"Ae-rín!"

"Coming mom!"

Winona, gym leader of Fortree, sighed as a spunky six year old girl bounced down the stairwell.

Now, I don't know what you think when I say bounced. Whatever it is, it doesn't have enough energy. Picture a little girl in gray-blue clothes with long lavender hair. Now picture her bouncing ten feet into the air while traveling down the stairs, and tripping on a little Swablu to land with an almighty crash at the bottom of the stairwell.

"Aerín! Are you okay?" Winona called. Mother's instinct. Even when you know your child will be alright, you still rush over just in case.

"Just fine!" the little girl replied cheerfully.

"Don't scare me like that!" scolded Winona. "You know that it's not safe to bounce like an oversized Buneary down the stairs!"

"But mom, it's fun!"

Winona sighed with exasperation as her daughter giggled and skipped off to breakfast. Even though she looked like a younger clone of her mother, you could barely tell that Aerín and Winona were related. While Winona was serious most of the time, Aerín was like her opposite number, always cheerful, delightfully mischievous, and full of energy.

"She must get it from him I suppose," muttered Winona. She looked at a photo that hung on the wall.

In the picture was a set of surprised faces. One was her own, from about six years ago. Another one was that of her husband, Wallace, the League Champion of Hoenn. The final two were the faces of Salon Maiden Anabel of Verdanturf Town and Ash Ketchum of Pallet Town.

Standing in the background, looking like the smuggest teenager in the world, was a nineteen year old boy with jet-black hair. His eyes were a brilliant shade of emerald. If you inspected it closely, there were some golden specks in his eyes that were radiating a warm glow that was comforting in a time that put people down in the dumps.

Winona sighed and touched the picture. _Will you ever fade…Aeron? _She wondered. The scar that his apparent death had left on the four was still there. Only they had known who the boy really was.

Her train of thought was interrupted as Aerín called out. "Mom, Ash and Aunt Anabel are at the door!"

"Wallace, what're you doing up there?!" Winona shouted. "Do you honestly have to take this long to do your hair?!"

"Winona, I woke up this morning with my hair in a complete mess, and dyed completely white! Somebody bleached it during the night!" Winona groaned as Aerín giggled.

"Honestly, Aerín. I don't know how you get away with all this." Winona sighed.

"I don't know. Daddy just never noticed." Aerín said, still giggling.

"Hey, Winona, you in there?" They heard a male voice call, accompanied by knocking.

Winona walked over to the door and opened it to reveal two teenagers. One had short purple hair and identical colored eyes. The other had jet black hair and dark eyes. Both wore smiles on their faces.

"Sorry to keep you lovebirds waiting." Winona said, with a slight smirk as she said lovebirds.

"Winona!" The two groaned, simultaneously. Totally unrehearsed.

Winona laughed and invited them into the house. "Wallace is going to be down here in a few minutes. Somebody…" she glared at Aerín, "bleached his hair and messed it up last night." Aerín giggled mischievously.

"She did it, huh?" Ash asked, throwing a grin in Aerín's direction.

"Quite right." Winona sighed. "Honestly. If I didn't know better, I'd say the father was Aeron!"

Aerín's ears picked up on the name Aeron. "Who's Aeron?"

Winona froze, having unintentionally revealed some "classified" information. She looked in Ash and Anabel's direction.

"She should know the truth." Anabel said quietly. Her face had fallen into sadness as soon as she had said Aeron's name.

Aerín looked at all the sullen faces. "Well, mom? Who is this Aeron?"

Winona looked at her. "You are not a normal child Aerín. You were not born the normal way. You were born from the life energy of a friend, as he lay dying. You are his last gift to us."

Aerín was stunned. "I'm…special?"

Winona nodded. Wallace came down as they had discussed this, and saw their faces. "She knows?" he asked. Winona nodded.

Wallace sighed and sat down. "Sit, Aerín. We have a long tale to tell you."

For the first time ever, Aerín was completely silent.

"Aeron Solo was our friend that we met prior to a new crisis in Hoenn."

"The war against Cipher?" Aerín broke in.

"That's right. Actually, Anabel and Pikachu-" she nodded at the electric mouse Pokémon sitting on Ash's shoulder, "met him long before that."

"Really? Aunt Anabel, you know that guy?"

Anabel nodded, still not used to being called Aunt when she was only nineteen. "Aeron was my mentor during the years that I lived in Verdanturf. He was the only one that I could truly call friend without any doubts. He taught me how to use my empathic abilities."

"Wow..." Aerín breathed. "Imagine that, someone who can teach you to use a special power.

"Aeron was special to me. He was almost like my brother." Anabel's eyes had a faraway look to them, as if she was in another world entirely. "Then one day I learned that he wasn't human. Well, not entirely."

"Not human? How?"

"I'll answer that later." Anabel shifted in her seat. "If I may, I'd like to start."

"Go right ahead, Anabel." Ash said. He grasped her hand and gently squeezed it. She smiled at him gratefully.

"It began six years ago, when I had all but forgotten him…"_

* * *

_

_Anabel! Wake up!_

"Mmm…" a girl with lilac hair murmured, trying to stay asleep.

A cat-like Pokémon with pink fur and a gem on her forehead sighed._ She's never been much for mornings, _the Espeon muttered telepathically. _And she forgot to set up her alarm clock last night._

Espeon climbed up to the top of a bookshelf that was close to Anabel's bed. _Oh well. I guess it can't be helped._

_Banzai!_ She shouted (with her mind, obviously) and jumped off, landing on Anabel's torso.

_"_OW!!!" Anabel shouted, bolting awake. She saw Espeon sitting innocently on her chest and groaned. "Espeon!"

_What?_ Espeon asked. _You forgot to set up your alarm clock and that was the fastest way to wake you up. Besides, you have to go to the Battle Tower today, don't you?_

Anabel groaned. She had completely forgotten about that.

_Thought so. Aeron would've been ticked off if you had done that back in those days, _Espeon commented, reminding Anabel of her childhood.

Anabel got up and changed. She then called Espeon back to her Poké ball and left to go to the Battle Tower, where, as the Frontier Brain, she was in charge of.

As she walked her thoughts trailed once more to her distant past, where a young man had taught her how to use her empathic abilities...

_

* * *

_

_"Ahhh!!"_

_A young Anabel ran from a bunch of large, older children. All male as it happens._

_"C'mon, little girl, give it up!" laughed one._

_"Never!" Anabel shouted, still running. She was holding a shopping bag with their food for the week, and Pokéballs, Potions, and Berries. All stuff that the boys wanted._

_"If you're not gonna give it up, I'm gonna-OOF!!!" shouted a boy, stopped in the middle of his sentence by a rather powerful blow to his behind, causing him to stumble and trip his companions._

_"All right, who did that?" asked the leader, a teenager with red hair and icy blue eyes._

_"Leave, you. I despise boys who attack little girls just because they have something you want." A boy in his late teens with black hair and green eyes shot through with golden specks stood tall over the boys, his eyes flickering with anger._

_"Uhh... let's leave." The leader said nervously, obviously disconcerted by the stranger. They made a run for it, not looking back. It was just as well, because if looks could kill they would've died horribly._

_"Now who might you be?" The stranger asked, turning to Anabel, his eyes losing his anger. They actually seemed very friendly now._

_"Err..." Anabel said, not sure how to respond. Parents always tell their kids not to talk to strangers, and Anabel's mother was no exception._

_"You've been told by your mother that you shouldn't talk to strangers, right?" the boy asked, before Anabel had any chance to respond._

_"How did you...?"_

_"Do that?" he broke in, once again seemingly able to finish Anabel's thought before she could get it out. "Sorry. I always creep people out when I do that. I'm... special." he said, a flicker of emotion flaring through his eyes as he said the word 'special', almost as if he'd rather not be it. "And you're special too, I might add."_

_"What do you mean?" Anabel asked. She had never known about any special powers inside her._

_"You've got something deep down. Let's see..." he tapped his fingers to her forehead and closed his eyes. The fingers began glowing green, and then stopped just as quickly as he opened his eyes and took his fingers off her forehead. "Yes, very special indeed. You're an empathic."_

_"A what?"_

_"An empathic. A person who can convey his or her thoughts and feelings to someone else by linking with that person or Pokémon's mind. It's a rare type of power that only crops up once in several generations. A person wielding this power can command his or her Pokémon with the mind rather than the word, which is much more efficient, as you can allow your Pokémon to use unorthodox tactics in battle just by picturing how you want it done. Very effective."_

_"Oh..." Anabel said, her tone hiding her excited mind._

_"Don't try to hide your emotions from me. I'm an empathic too, and empathic people can sense the emotions of others."_

_"Could you teach me how to use my powers?" Anabel asked, wondering what her mother would say if she knew that she had been talking this much with a stranger._

_"Sure. By the way, I'm gonna make sure you get back to your house without any more ambushes. You can't be too careful with kids like those."_

_As soon as he had said this, Anabel caught sight of a flash of silver; a knife aimed directly at her mysterious companion. "Look out!" she screamed._

_The knife glanced off of his neck in a shower of sparks, the screech of metal against metal distinctive. Anabel gazed, dumbfounded as the stranger calmly plucked the knife out of thin air, tossed it to the side so as not to hit Anabel, and then fired a lightning bolt straight at the place from where it was thrown from. Instantly there was a surprised yelp of pain, and then silence._

_"Did you...?"Anabel asked, afraid to say the last two words._

_"Give him eternal sleep? No. He's just out cold. My name's Aeron by the way."_

_"I'm Anabel."_

_"Anabel... that's a nice name."_

_"Thanks."_

_The two walked into the distance, talking as the sun went down..._

* * *

It had been a while since Anabel had last thought about Aeron. The Salon Maiden hadn't needed to give a thought for her mentor in a while. Yet even so, her thoughts were straying to him a lot. She wondered what he would say about her being in love with Ash Ketchum.

_Are you kidding? Of all things you could ask, you had to pick one that should be addressed by a female,_ she heard, as if he was nearby, transmitting thoughts through empathy.

She sighed. _I must be going crazy,_ she thought to herself as she stepped into the Battle Tower.

_

* * *

_

A yellow mouse Pokémon woke up on a bedside. "Pi?" He looked at the clock, showing that it was a bit late in the morning, then looked at the bed and saw his trainer, Ash Ketchum, still sleeping.

"Pika..." Pikachu sighed. Ash had never been much of a morning person, and as usual, he was waking up late. There was usually no way to wake him up. That is, unless you were Pikachu.

"Pi-ka..._CHU!!!"_ Pikachu shouted, letting off a powerful Thundershock attack that zapped Ash with its power.

"WAAAHHHHHH!!!!!!" Ash yelled, feeling Pikachu's electricity course painfully through his body.

"Pika-Pika!" Pikachu said cheerfully, jumping and landing on Ash's shoulder.

"Pikachu, what was that for?"

_"You're a bit late in waking. Your mom and Mr. Mime are usually finished eating breakfast about now."_ Pikachu commented. (Obviously, words in italics are translations.)

_"_Ah, man! Is it really that late?" Ash asked, checking the clock. "Oh no!" He vaulted out of bed, hurrying to get changed.

He did so, then quickly ran down the stairs. "Please tell me breakfast isn't over yet," he muttered, racing to the dining room.

Delia Ketchum looked up as Ash raced in. "Slow down, Ash. Breakfast won't run from you."

Ash did slow down, seeing that breakfast was still on the table. He sat down and gathered himself some, then began to eat. Moments later, Pikachu came to join them.

Pikachu watched as Ash wolfed down his breakfast._ I must make a note to thank him if I ever see him again,_ Pikachu thought, his thoughts drifting to the time before he had been given to Ash...

_

* * *

_

_"Hey! Professor Oak!"_

_Professor Oak saw a young man with black hair and green eyes (predictably, with gold specks) running up. "Hello Aeron. What can I help you with?"_

_"Can you give this Pokémon to the last person who comes to claim a Pokémon?" Aeron asked, handing Professor Oak a Pokéball with a lightning bolt on it._

_"How can I be sure he or she is the last?" Professor Oak asked._

_"Give all the others out first." Aeron answered. "Be careful. This little guy's a bit of a wild card."_

_"Really?" Professor Oak released the Pokémon from the Pokéball._

_The white light coalesced in the form of a yellow mouse eith red cheeks and a lightning bolt shaped tail. "Pikachu!" the Pikachu said._

_"Why hello there little AHHHHH!!!!" Professor Oak made the mistake of touching Pikachu._

_"By the way, it's not a good idea to touch him without rubber gloves on." Aeron said, grinning._

_"Ha, ha. Very funny." Professor Oak said, his voice dripping with sarcasm._

_"This little guy's a special one. His electrical power is unusually powerful for a Pikachu. You could power a house with this little guy," Aeron commented, scratching Pikachu gently behind the ears. Pikachu relaxed as he did this, seeming to enjoy the scratching._

_"Well, why a Pikachu?" Oak asked, wondering why Aeron had come to him with a Pikachu. Pikachu wasn't a starter Pokémon._

_"Because this Pikachu will do great by the side of that one." Aeron answered. "I can see them together, accomplishing incredible feats, succeeding against all odds. They will go against everything that comes there way together, and they will always pull through."_

_"All right." Oak said. "Come back, Pikachu."_

_Pikachu, however refused to go back into the Pokéball._

_"By the way, he hates being confined in a Pokéball." Aeron added, holding out his hand. Oak noted that it seemed like he was asking him for the Pokéball, so he handed it to Aeron._

_Aeron scratched Pikachu behind the ears again. "Hey, Pikachu, I know you hate being in a Pokéball, but can you endure just for a while? It'll only be for a day or two. Besides, when you come out again you'll never have to go back in."_

_"Pika… (All right…)" sighed Pikachu, allowing himself to be called back to the Pokéball._

_"Thanks." Aeron said, handing the ball to Prof. Oak. "Now, take care of him, okay? I've grown to like him in the time that I've had him."_

_"I will." Oak promised. "Now, I'm heading back to my lab to get all the Pokémon ready."_

_"Good. That means Pikachu won't have long to wait." Aeron said. He then bid the Professor farewell and then left._

_Oak looked at the Pokéball in his hands. "Special indeed…" he muttered._

* * *

Pikachu finished breakfast and then bounded after Ash. Ash was heading out to  
Tohjo Falls to meet up with his girlfriend, Salon Maiden Anabel of the Battle Tower, and Pikachu was eager to meet her Espeon again.

_It's gonna be a good day._ Pikachu thought.

* * *

"Alright Altaria. That's a wrap."

Winona called back the humming Pokémon, having beaten her opponent in battle. Lately, things had been going in her favor. She hadn't lost a battle in over a month.

I wonder how Wallace is doing at Evergrande City? She wondered, thinking about her husband.

A few months ago, she and Wallace had married in the aftermath of the titanic battle between Kyogre and Groudon. She and Wallace had rediscovered their love for each other, resulting in, well, you can figure it out. Since then Wallace had come back to Fortree for every evening to stay with his wife. It wasn't a perfect system, but hey. Life isn't always perfect.

Currently, she had won a rather intense battle against her opponent, a trainer that used rock-type Pokémon in battle. Despite the type disadvantages, she had taken him out with moderate effort.

"Alright, who's next?" she called.

"May I challenge you?" she heard. She turned to see a boy in his late teens, with midnight blue hair and blue eyes. He wore blue garments that were laced through with white trimming.

"What's your name?" she asked.

"Axel Nightblazer. I'm honored to be able to battle you." Axel said.

"Aren't you good at flattery?" Winona asked with a grin. "Alright. You know what to do." She gestured at the opposite platform.

"Got it." Axel jumped right onto it and they went up.

After the referee had stopped saying all that junk, Winona selected a Pokéball. "Altaria, come on out!"

"Aeireon, let's do this!" Axel called.

_Aeireon? Never heard of that Pokémon before._ Winona mused, watching as a gray-blue cat-like Pokémon came out of its Pokéball._ Looks rather like an Espeon._

It did look quite a bit like an Espeon, except that the fur on the back of its legs streaked back to give them a feathery appearance. Also, the fur on its tail was much bushier, also looking rather feathery. The gem on its forehead was blue, and it gleamed with a strange light. It seemed to stand on thin air.

"Where'd you get that?" Winona asked, interested. "I've never seen anyone use that before."

"Let's just say I found it on accident." Axel said. "Why don't we go higher?"

Winona wasted no time in raising the platform. Likewise, Axel did the same.

"Aeireon, let's go!"_ Use Sky attack!_ Axel called, the first phrase with his mouth, the second with his mind.

Aeireon trilled, letting off a harsh light.

"Altaria, use Dragonbreath!" Winona called.

Altaria blew a stream of green gas at Aeireon, thick with the power to paralyze.

Aeireon, use Aerial ace while you charge and combine the power of Sky Attack with it! Axel ordered.

Aeireon vanished from view and then reappeared directly behind Altaria, still glowing. Aeireon promptly smashed into Altaria with all the force she had to offer.

Altaria cried out as the attack connected, as the speed boost combined with the tremendous force of Sky Attack was devastating. It sent the humming Pokémon careening out of the sky.

"Aeireon, catch Altaria before she hits the ground!" Axel called.

Aeireon bounded through the air to catch Altaria in midair, then slowly lowered her to the ground. Altaria had fainted.

"Altaria is unable to battle! Aeireon wins!" the referee shouted.

Winona was stunned. With a single attack, Altaria had gone down. True, Altaria had been drained from the last battle, but no typical trainer should've been able to overcome Altaria that easily. This guy was not to be toyed with.

"Swellow, let's fly!" Winona shouted, sending out her only Shiny Pokémon.

"Swellow!" cried the bird Pokémon, flaring open his wings.

"Swellow, huh? Aeireon, return!" Axel called. Aeireon returned to her Pokéball as a stream of red energy. "Glaceon, you willing?" Aeron asked. A Glaceon that had been perched on his shoulder all this time rubbed against his neck affectionately. "Okay, okay, I get it. Go on out." Glaceon trilled briefly before jumping out to open air.

And promptly stopped in midair, as if she had landed on an invisible platform.

_Hm. That's interesting._ Winona thought. "Swellow, use Aerial Ace!"

Swellow vanished from view with a flourish of high speed. Axel closed his eyes, frowning.

_Glaceon! Behind you! Blizzard!_ Axel thought_._

Glaceon turned around and blasted the space behind her with a storm of ice particles. Moments later, Swellow screeched as he was nailed in the middle of his attack.

_This may take a while._ Winona thought grimly.


	2. The Rising Shadow

"Was he really special?" Aerín asked.

"Hmm?" Winona was jolted out of her reverie. She was still reliving the memory of the battle that had been interrupted right before it was going to end.

"Aeron. Was he that special of a person?"

"He was." Anabel answered, still remembering her kind hearted mentor.

"Don't any of you know when he actually comes into the story?"

Two Espeon trotted into the room. One was the one that had been Anabel's partner for nine years, the other of a far more ancient time.

Anabel's Espeon jumped into her lap. "Hey, Espeon." She looked at the other, who had curled up gloomily by the window, staring out. She reached out with her empathic abilities into the mind of the Espeon.

She instantly was met by a barrier that was made of memories of a tall, black haired individual with green eyes. She immediately understood. In all the years that Aeron had been gone, Espeon had never managed to get over his death.

"Espeon, can you answer Aerín's question?" she asked, causing the gloomy cat-like Pokémon to turn around.

_Yes I could_. She answered. _It happened like this…_

* * *

A teenager with black hair and green eyes with golden specks throughout them stood on a hillside.

_Mmm, the wind's nice today,_ he thought, as an Espeon bounded over and sat next to him.

"Well, what should we do today, eh?" he asked, scratching his Espeon gently under the chin. She trilled briefly and pulled her head away. "Aw c'mon. Don't tell me you're _that _ticklish."

_You know exactly how ticklish I am, Aeron_. Espeon replied, nuzzling him affectionately. Aeron laughed, then looked into the sky.

"Nice day. It's been awhile since I saw a sky as blue as this one. What with all the technology these days, you couldn't find the sky if you looked up!"

Espeon agreed with Aeron. These days technology was overwhelming the natural beauty of the world, and the two had a preference for the latter. It saddened them to see how nature was being eaten up by cities and such. It was nice that humanity was managing to be able to live better, but the way that it did made their hearts heavy.

Aeron sighed and they continued to look at the sky for a few moments. Then Aeron broke the silence. "What do you think? Should we pay a visit to an old friend?"

_Which one?_ Espeon quipped. Aeron sent her an image of a girl with short purple hair that stood in front of the Battle Tower. _Oh, her?_ Aeron nodded. _Sure, why not?_

Aeron smiled, and then the two shimmered out of view.

* * *

"Swellow, Sky Attack!"

"Glaceon, Ice fang!

The battle between Swellow and Glaceon was _still_ going on. Every move they had done had resulted in a stalemate. Swellow had managed to nail Glaceon with a Hyper Beam, and had taken an Ice Shard for his trouble. Right now, the two had little stamina left, so it was now a battle of wills.

Swellow charged at Glaceon while emitting a harsh light, while Glaceon jumped at Swellow with icy fangs. The two collided in an explosion of power, sending the shockwaves rippling across the battle field. When the smoke finally cleared up, both Pokémon were down.

"Both Pokémon are unable to battle. This round is a draw!" shouted the referee.

"Nice going, Swellow." Winona said, returning Swellow to his Pokéball.. "Rest now. We'll wrap this up for you."

"Glaceon, that was great. You've really gotten good with you're attacks." Axel said, also returning his Pokémon.

"Skarmory, let's go!" Winona shouted.

Axel raised an eyebrow. "Skarmory, huh?" He thought for a moment, then raised a Pokéball. "Pikachu, come out!"

"Pikachu!" cried the Pikachu that burst forth from Axel's Pokéball.

"Let's start round three." Axel said.

* * *

A group of armored figures trooped towards the Battle Tower. They were in various shades of armor, ranging from white to black. All were armored similarily.

Anabel noted the group from high atop the Battle Tower, as she was attending to her duties. _I wonder who they are?_ She wondered.

Not far off, Aeron and Espeon shimmered into visibility. They saw the group too.

"Not good." Aeron muttered. "If those are the same guys as last time..."

_Then we'd better step in before it's too late._ Espeon broke in.

"First, let's let them get close before stepping in to figure out their plans." Aeron said.

_Right. I'll conceal us from view._ Espeon thought, bending the light so as to shield them from the eyes of any who they didn't want to see them.

* * *

Ash and Pikachu were coming close to the Battle Tower around that time. Ash noticed the armored figures going towards the facility that his girlfriend managed.

"I wonder what they're doing. They'd better not want any trouble." Ash said. Pikachu agreed. The two kept an eye on the strangers as they moved towards the Battle Tower.

Anabel saw Ash coming and her spirits lifted. She quickly finished up her duties and raced to the bottom floor, ready to greet her boyfriend.

As soon as the doors opened, no sooner had Ash gotten into the Tower than Anabel had tackled him back out, and the two tumbled head over heels before finally coming to a stop, laughing. Pikachu had had enough sense to jump off Ash's shoulder before Anabel tackled him, so he landed safely rather than be crushed under the weight of the two lovers.

"Espeon, my friend, come out! Have some fun with Pikachu!" Anabel called, tossing Espeon's Pokéball towards Pikachu.

Espeon blazed forth and materialized next to Pikachu. Pikachu said hello, and Espeon greeted him with a few words from telepathy. The two then began to play with the rest of their trainers' Pokémon, as the two had just released them from their Pokéballs. Their trainers simply sat down next to the lake and began to talk.

* * *

Aeron watched enviously as Anabel and Ash talked to one another. It wasn't that he had a crush on Anabel, it was the fact that he hadn't had social contact with humans in a long time. He had been lonely from the time of his birth, for he had been born as an orphan.

Espeon sensed her friend's sudden drop in spirits and flicked her tail so that it draped gently over his shoulders like one would put an arm there and purred, rubbing against the side of his face. Although she couldn't see his face, she knew that he had smiled gratefully and he reached up and scratched her behind the ears.

_Thanks Espeon. You're always there when I need you._ Aeron thought to his friend. Then they turned their attention to the armored figures, who were still coming, but now they had diverted their course to the two lovers.

* * *

"There they are," whispered a blue armored one.

A red armored one simply grunted and raised his arms.

Ash noticed the figures. "Hey, what do you want?" he asked, moving in between the strangers and his girlfriend.

"_Blast Burn," g_runted the man in red.

Ash's eyes widened in shock as the man summoned forth a large torrent of fire that roared through the area that they stood in.

"Not even enough time to scream." muttered the man.

"That's because they didn't feel a thing," they heard a voice say through the smoke.

"Eh?" the strangers watched as the smoke cleared away, and saw a figure standing in front of Ash and Anabel, his arms outstretched, his back to the armored strangers.

Anabel saw the newcomer's face and her eyes widened with recognition. "You!"

"Long time no see, Anabel." Aeron said, smiling.


	3. The First Encounter

Ash looked between the two. "You know each other?"

Aeron turned his smile to Ash. "You must be Ash Ketchum. A pleasure to meet you. I'd shake your hand, but I need to do something to the morons who attacked. Care to wait for a few moments?" Ash nodded mutely, stunned by how friendly this guy was. "Good. I'll be able to socialize before you can finish a romantic kiss with my pupil." Anabel blushed as he said this, and then Ash caught on and blushed too. "Sorry. I like to make jokes like that a lot, so don't get too worked up about it."

"You! Turn around!"

The blue armored figure had shouted at them. Aeron turned around. "Can I help you?" he asked.

"Who are you?"

"My identity is not important." Aeron held up his hand, and a ray of light arced into it, forming a sheathed Japanese long sword, or daito. "What matters is what you will do in the face of death."

"What're you talking about?" a man asked. The men had all begun to release their powers. There were Hyper beams beginning to form, several Frenzy plants, some Dark Pulses, and others.

Aeron just smiled and raised his sword. The sword began to glow, sheath and all. The sheath dissolved, and the sword molded into a new shape.

"_Rage…Tsubasa no Rai-oh! (wings of the lightning king)" _Aeron shouted.

The sword finally stopped glowing, and it had reformed into a double-edged blade that had green edges, and a gold indent along the length of the blade. The hilt remained as the traditional tsuba, but the guard had reformed in a pair of jagged spikes that paralleled the blade.

"Let's see you stand up to this." Aeron raised his hand, which crackled with high voltage. The electricity was soon released as a deadly volley of lightning bolts that arced towards the figures.

"Mirror coat!" shouted a man, raising his arms and reflecting the attack back at Aeron.

Aeron raised his sword hand and sucked the electricity into the blade. Then it was released again, fifty times stronger.

"ARRGGHH!" shouted the blue guy, for Aeron had turned his attention mainly on that particular man. He went down thrashing.

"What's he doing?" Ash asked. "Why's he protecting us?"

"Ash, long ago, I befriended him and he taught me to use my abilities." Anabel said quietly.

"You what?" Ash asked, shocked.

Anabel repeated what she had said. Suddenly Aeron shimmered into view beside them.

"Sorry to bother you, but I need to take you out of here. Espeon, cover our escape and then join us when I tell you to."

_Right._ Espeon said through telepathy, and promptly threw up a Mirror Coat to fend off the Blast Burn that had been fired as Aeron had given her orders.

"See you soon, my friend." Aeron grabbed onto Ash and Anabel.

"H-h-hold it! W-what're you doing?" Ash asked.

"Grabbing onto you two tightly so you won't let go and get dropped in the middle of nowhere, really far off. Do not squirm out of my grasp." Aeron then jumped in a certain direction, and all three shimmered from view.

They reappeared close to the spot where Ash and Anabel's Pokémon were playing. "Recall your Pokémon. I'm getting the feeling that we're going to need to go really far off."

"Pikachu!" Ash called. "Come on! We need to leave!"

Pikachu jumped to his trainer as Anabel and Ash recalled their Pokémon.

"Hold on tight." Aeron grasped both of them and then jumped, flashing them off in a certain direction.

* * *

_Axel!_

Axel raised his head in the middle of his battle. _Aeron? What's wrong?_

_Cipher just attacked the Battle Tower's Frontier Brain, Salon Maiden Anabel of Verdanturf Town. Be careful; they might go for Winona, who I presume you are battling currently._

_Understood. I'll keep a lookout._ Axel cast his eyes about, searching even as he battled Winona.

There! A figure was approaching their battlefield. He was holding up a Pokéball.

Axel narrowed his eyes at him. _Who is that?_

"Go! Metagross!" The man sent out the pseudo-legendary steel-psychic type Pokémon. "Attack! Shadow Crash!

Metagross roared and unleashed a wall of shadow power at both Pokémon, drawing the attention of many. The wall grew as it flew, until it was big enough to engulf the entire arena.

"Pikachu! Use _Thunder_ Crash!" Axel shouted.

"Pi-ka..._CHU!!!"_ The little yellow electrical mouse Pokémon unleashed a similar attack that was soon just as big. The two walls of energy met in an enormous explosion, rivaling the actual move Explosion in power.

Winona shielded herself with her arms as the shockwave of the explosion neared her, catching Skarmory's attention and forcing him to fly between Winona and the blast. The two barely stood up to the force of the resulting shockwave.

Axel jumped over to the stricken Gym Leader. "Are you alright?"

Winona nodded, and managed to find her voice. "What's Thunder Crash?"

"A move I invented. It's pretty much a massive wave of electricity that strikes both opponents. However, its size and power increase with distance, so the best time to be hit by it, besides being far away and having Volt Absorb, motor drive, or not getting hit at all, is point blank, when it will not have as much effect. It never misses. Once it's fired, the only way to stop it is to use protection based moves or to be a ground type."

"What's Shadow Crash then?" Winona asked, jumping up and healing Skarmory with a Max Potion.

"A similar move, except it's made of the _Shadow_ element."

"Shadow?"

"A forbidden element that can be forcibly obtained by closing the door to a Pokémon's heart. One of four forbidden elements, actually. Another is obtained by opening the door to a Pokémon's heart wider and forming absolute friendship, one that would never break if the two were separated by eternity and a whole universe. That one is Light."

"Why don't a lot of Pokémon have these elements, then?"

"Because many people don't do either. Shadow Pokémon are used by a team called Cipher, and they are here in Hoenn right now."

"So that guy…" Winona said, coming to one conclusion:

"Yes. He's a Cipher Peon." Axel confirmed. "Always hated Cipher. They used machinery to forcibly close the doors to a Pokémon. They're brutal to their enemies, and don't care much for Pokémon."

"That's terrible! How did they think of all this stuff?!" Winona wondered, horrified.

"My brother has a theory, but he can't prove it. Yet." Axel said. "In the meantime…" he held out a blue Pokéball streaked with silver. He pressed the button, and it transformed into an armor-like device that encompassed his arm.

"Hm? What's that?" Winona asked. She had a feeling it was for quite a bit more than just protection."

"You'll see." Axel looked uncomfortable, as if there was something about the device that he didn't like.

"You'll never defeat my Shadow Metagross!" shouted the Cipher Peon. Metagross powered up Meteor Mash, and was about to strike Pikachu.

"Now!" Axel shouted, materializing a Pokéball in his hand. "Steal!_ Felus Caran!_" he shouted.

An odd energy flared into the sphere, and as he threw it a claw-like energy flared out and snared the Metagross, pulling it in. Winona stared, dumbfounded as the Pokéball dropped onto the ground and shook three times before gently pulsing and stopping.

"Leave, Cipher Peon. Tell your boss that you will not find Hoenn easy to capture." Axel said, coldly.

What skin on the Cipher Peon's face that could be seen went pale and he fled the scene.

"Hmph. Only having one Pokémon on hand? How foolish." Axel muttered. He caught Winona staring at him. "What?"

"Did you steal his Pokémon?" Winona asked, pointing at the Pokéball on the ground.

Axel nodded. "Trust me, I hate to do it, but I have absolutely no choice. There's no way that I can get the Cipher Peons to purify them manually, and the only other option is to take the Pokémon by force. Trust me though; I'd rather steal Pokémon than leave them to suffer at the hands of Cipher."

Winona considered what was just said. "How do you purify a Shadow Pokémon?"

Axel smiled. "This is where I like this device." He placed the Pokéball containing the Shadow Metagross in the palm of the device on his right arm.

"_Hiyuru a aros,"_ he murmured. A blue-green light began pulsing from the palm of the device, energizing the Pokéball until it radiated the same glow, and then a shadowy purple aura was dispelled from the Pokéball to be replaced with a healthy green one. Then he threw the Pokéball. "Go, Metagross!"

The Metagross came out from its Pokéball. Yet for some unknown reason, it seemed more relaxed than when it had last been seen, and much more friendly.

"That is Purification. Gotta hand it to my bro', he's brilliant. Usually you need to take the Pokémon to the Relic Stone to purify it after slowly opening its heart, or throw it in a Purification chamber. Now, though, I can use this Snag Machine to purify the Pokémon manually."

"What were the words you were speaking while operating the…Snag Machine?" Winona asked. "You used two different sets: Felus Caran, and Hiyuru a aros."

"Boy, you sure are observant. Those words operate the Aetherium crystal in the palm."

"Aetherium?!" Winona was quite shocked. Aetherium was legendary, but mankind had long forgotten how to mine it.

"Yes, Aetherium. The words we use tell it what to do. Felus Caran means "Sphere of Corruption", which energizes a Pokéball with a corrupted energy that can break the barrier that captured Pokémon are surrounded with that prevents recapture. Hiyuru a aros means "heal the heart", which restores the Pokémon to their pre-shadow status, and allows it to regain experience."

"That's a lot of stuff." Winona remarked. "Isn't there a way that commoners, like us Gym leaders, could help fight Cipher?"

Winona saw Axel hesitate. "Thing is, we don't know if we can trust the Gym Leaders with this technology. It's not like we believe you to be bad guys," he added when Winona gave him a hurt look, "it's just that we don't know who we can trust when dealing with this. If we were to give you this, could you guarantee that none of the Gym Leaders would get ideas, Supervisor?"

"No," Winona admitted, as she was unsure of what would happen if the Gym Leaders were given such powerful forces to command. Also, they might get ideas. "But I still want to help, and if Wallace were here, I'm sure he would too!"

Axel considered the notion for a few minutes, pondering what to do. On one hand, he was sure he could trust the Champion and the Supervisor. On the other hand, Aeron was wary of regular humans, and had told Axel to be cautious when weighing the option of giving their secrets to them.

_Axel, you're thinking too much. As usual. _Axel heard Aeron's voice ring out in his mind. _You can trust the Supervisor and her husband, the Champion. They are pure hearted, and will not waver. Tell them. Our secrets are safe with them._

Axel now had no doubts. He held up his hand, and light was pulled to a sphere-like area in his palm. When he opened his hand, a strange Pokéball-like device was in it, except it was white, with lavender streaks. "This is a Snag Machine that Aeron made for a certain female. He had no idea who it was to be, but he had a feeling that she would be a Gym Leader. Apparently, he wasn't wrong. Try it on."

Winona took the device and tapped the button. It immediately began shifting to conform to her arm as an armor-like device. It fit perfectly, and was delicately shaped to fit in with her pilot's clothing. All in all, it was her style.

"He made it pretty well." Winona commented, twisting her arm in the full range of motions. It was a bit strange to have it on, but she moved her arm in every which-a-way with no trouble.

"By the way, it can actually increase the strength of the arm, so I'd be careful. You could do something that you didn't mean to with that on. Also, it would take a black hole to destroy that, so you don't have to worry about it breaking. You can actually use it defensively like if a guy came at you with a sword."

"Really?" Winona was a bit skeptical.

"It's true. For example, pick up that rock and squeeze it."

Winona picked up a fist sized rock with the Snag Machine and squeezed it without really putting much effort into it. Instantly it broke into grain-sized pieces. Shocked, Winona put her fingers under a larger boulder and pulled. She lifted it without much resistance. Amazed by the power of the Snag Machine, she dropped the boulder and hopped over to Axel. "Any way to test its indestructibility?"

Axel held up his hand, and a blue ray of light arced into it, forming a katana with a sapphire-blue hilt wrap, and a slightly darker scabbard.

Winona paled. "You're not serious."

"I am." Axel drew his sword and lifted it high over his head. "HIIIII-YAAAHHHHH!!!!"

Winona barely lifted her arm in time to block the blow. There was a tremendous clash of metal on metal, and then the shockwave from the blow ripped across the land as a fierce wind that raced in all directions. Yet, when all the excitement had stopped, Winona was still holding up to Axel's blade.

"Cool, huh?" Axel twirled his blade and sheathed it, then tapped his finger on the spot where he struck the Snag Machine. "If you look closely, there's not so much as a scratch here from where I hit it. It's pretty solid."

Winona examined the spot. He was right. There wasn't even a sign that anything had happened. Winona was quite impressed. "You're bro's a technological wizard."

"Well, he _is_ a genius." Axel admitted sheepishly. "Anything he develops is light-years into the future. Even I have to admire his ingenuity."

"What's your blood relation to him, anyway? Younger brother? Twin? Older brother?"

"Younger twin." Axel answered.

"Wow. You don't see a lot of twins around here."

"Well, we're not from "around here"." Axel said, thinking these words:_ We're not sure where we're from, actually._

"Well, if you don't mind, I'm going to heal my Pokémon and get to Evergrande." Winona called, running off toward a cliff.

"Hey! Whoa! Stop!" Axel shouted, moving to stop her. Winona jumped clear off, and sank over the edge.

"Hey! Winona!" Axel ran up to the edge, scanning worriedly around. It wouldn't do for the Supervisor to accidentally jump off a cliff.

Turns out he didn't need to worry. He heard the screech of a Skarmory as Winona, riding her giant Skarmory, rose into view, soaring towards Fortree. (The Gym was a ways off, if you remember.)

"_Sigh..._ Girls always find a way to freak you out without meaning to." Axel muttered, taking a flying leap off the cliff himself and landing on thin air. "Well, I'm gonna have to go with her to Evergrande, so I'd better to get used to it."

He sighed as he raced after his new companion. _This is going to be a loooonnnnggggg day._


	4. Pokédexes are Outdated

As Aeron warped into view, a bunch of Kricketot and Pidgey scattered from where they had been resting, startled by the newcomers. Aeron stood there, releasing his companions.

"Well!" Aeron said, blowing out a sigh of relief. "That's a relief. I sometimes flash-step into a tree if going over a long distance, and that's always pretty painful!"

Ash honed in on the words "flash-step". "Huh? Flash-step? Isn't that a Soul Reaper technique called Shun-po?"

Aeron raised an eyebrow. "Oh-ho! A normal human who pays attention to Tite Kubo's _Bleach_! A rarity indeed! Tite Kubo does a pretty good job putting the real thing into story form, I must say."

"Huh? What do you mean? Soul Reapers aren't real, are they?" Ash asked.

"Ash, are Pokémon real? Yes, they are. Is Arceus real? Yes, he is. As you very well know, fiction often becomes fact in a world like ours. So, why shouldn't Soul Reapers be real? Although I must say, you won't get to see a lot of Soul Reapers in the Pokémon regions."

"Why's that?" Ash asked.

"Not a lot of people die in these parts, and Hollows rarely, if ever, show up. Also, the last time a Hollow showed up, it picked a bad time to do it, because Giratina was taking a stroll in this world. I can tell you, it wasn't pretty. Giratina utterly destroyed the Hollow to say the _least_. I won't go into details. Since then, Hollows have been avoiding this area in fear of the strength of Pokémon in general."

Giratina appeared in a portal to the Distortion World._ Hollows are tasty_, he commented.

Aeron glanced at him. "No one asked you," he said. "You gave info that will now give nightmares."

_Whatever._ Giratina said, shrugging, and went back to the Distortion World.

"Wow... for Hollows to fear Pokémon...that means a lot." Ash remarked. He looked around. "Are we in the Viridian Forest?"

"Yes. We are." Aeron said, spreading his arms wide, and then a thought blasted far and wide from Aeron's mind: _Espeon!_

_You called?_ came the answer. Aeron's friend shimmered into view in midair and she tackled him to the ground, just for fun.

"Argh!" Aeron yelled, landing on the ground with a thud. Aeron sighed and looked at  
Espeon. "Do you _have_ to tackle me every time I call for you?"

_No, but it's fun to do so._ Espeon let out a telepathic giggle as Aeron groaned, rolled his eyes and shook his head. She gave him a quick lick on the cheek and then jumped off.

Aeron sat up. "Well, I hope that doesn't keep happening." he muttered, twisting a dial on the rim of his watch and then projecting into the air an image of the Viridian Forest, and then a blinking dot appeared in a certain spot. "Ah…so that's where we are."

"Huh? What is that?" Ash asked.

"An APW." Aeron told him.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Ash asked.

"All-Purpose-Wristband." Anabel said, making him jump.

Aeron raised an eyebrow. "You've gotten pretty good at that, Anabel. How long has it been since I last saw you?"

"Over a year." Anabel replied.

"Hmm. This much progress in just over a year." Aeron mused. "How's Espeon?"

"Ask her yourself." Anabel replied, tossing a Pokéball. "Go, my friend!"

Anabel's Espeon burst out of the Pokéball, and quickly saw Aeron's Espeon. She let out a cry of joy and shot over. Aeron's Espeon also seemed happy to see Anabel's.

"Well, mother and daughter are reunited." Aeron said.

"Which one's which?" Ash asked.

"Aeron's is the mother. Mine's the daughter." Anabel informed him. They watched the two express their happiness. "I guess they've missed each other more than I realized." Aeron mused, as the two Espeon chattered, and Aeron's gave a long lecture to Anabel's about the timing of certain attacks.

Aeron suddenly glanced around. "Hmm. We seem to have picked a bad time to come here."

No sooner had he said this than the ground began to rumble.

"W-w-what's h-happening?" Ash asked, trying hard to keep his balance.

"Brace yourselves, my friends. This hasn't happened for over a century, so the Pokémon world has forgotten what disruptive visitors these Pokémon make." Aeron said.

The ground broke open in the path, and a strange Pokémon burst out. It looked like an Aggron, except a few things were amiss. This Pokémon's head was longer than an Aggron's, and it's body was more narrow and muscular. The forelegs were skinnier, but somehow that made them look deadlier. The legs were much longer and had more muscle mass on them, and it had a longer tail, not to mention blade-like spines on its back.

"What's that?" Ash wondered bringing out his Pokédex.

"_Unknown Pokémon."_ The Pokédex said.

"What?! This thing's the latest Pokédex! How could this be unknown if it was here a hundred years ago?!" Ash yelled, shocked.

Aeron rolled his eyes. "You say that _that_ thing is the latest Pokédex? Please. It was outdated before it came out!"

"What're you talking about?" Ash asked, shocked that Aeron was saying this.

"Look, let _me_ show you what the _latest_ Pokédex is like." Aeron said, holding up his watch and spinning the dial on its rim. He then pushed the screen, and pointed his wrist at the Pokémon. A light flashed out and scanned the Pokémon.

"Fractiron, the armor dinosaur Pokémon." The watch said, obviously an extremely realistic recording of Aeron's voice. "Fractiron is often mistaken for Aggron at first glance. A big, not to mention fatal, mistake. If you think Aggron is territorial, you have no idea what you've gotten yourself into when you run into a Fractiron. Wild Fractirons will attack anything that it considers to be an enemy with all of its brutal strength. Unfortuantely, Fractirons usually consider almost everything that moves to be an enemy, with the exception of friends and family. It's nothing to joke about, either. Those legs have tons of muscle to speak of; they've literally pounded tanks to a pulp just by stomping on them. Their hide is immensely tough, so it's a bad idea to punch away, as you'll hurt yourself more than you'll hurt it. Also, see those blades on its back? It knows Rollout, and even though it gets no STAB from it, it's more deadly than a Golem using it, 'cause those blades aren't just for show. You get hit from Rollout from this thing, you'll get sliced and crushed. All in all, this thing is one tough Pokémon."

"How do you know that?" Ash asked

"I gathered the data on them myself. There are more Pokémon than the Pokémon League knows. I have managed to conceal the existence of several of these species."

"Why?" Anabel wondered.

"Do you know the stat total of a Fractiron?" Aeron asked. Both of them shook their heads. "Their stat total in general is 680! Up there with Rayquaza, Dialga, Palkia, and a bunch of super-powerful legendaries. There are others too, that are more powerful than pseudo-legendaries."

Ash and Anabel were shocked. Legendary class regular Pokémon? That would be too disruptive to the surface world! No wonder Aeron had to conceal them, otherwise they would wreck untold havoc on the surface!

"Okay, so what do we do?" Ash asked.

Fractiron roared and then activated Iron Head.

"Uh-oh!" Ash gulped as Fractiron charged towards him.

_Krang!_ Aeron had jumped between Ash and Fractiron and had drawn his sword.

"Fractiron! Calm down! I realize that you're cranky after waking up after a nap that lasted for a hundred years, but can you just simmer down or something? Please?" Aeron asked, managing to hold up against Fractiron's tremendous strength.

Fractiron roared in response and put more power into it's legs.

"Hmph. No reasoning with this guy, I guess." Aeron muttered.

"What type is Fractiron?" Ash asked.

"Steel-fighting." Aeron replied. "If you ever have enough luck to have a Fractiron on your side, you'll usually win. Don't teach these things Flash Cannon, though. Their Special Attack is pretty bad."

"So, sending out Charizard would be a good idea?" Ash asked.

"You could. This thing would be at a disadvantage, but there's no need." Aeron replied.

"How come?" Ash was puzzled.

"I got it all under control," came the reply. Aeron suddenly kicked Fractiron in the midsection, sending the heavy Pokémon flying upwards.

"Whoa!" Ash yelled, awestruck by Aeron's strength.

Aeron flash-stepped into the air above Fractiron.

"Let's see… I'm in the mood for Zangetsu today." Aeron said, and his sword shifted shape, turning into an oversized black cleaver blade with a silver edge, and white hilt wrap.

Ash's eyes widened. "Hey, isn't that-?"

"_Getsuga…TENSHO!"_ Aeron shouted, slamming Fractiron with a blue-white energy blast shaped like a crescent moon.

Fractiron roared in pain as it slammed heavily into the ground. Aeron landed next to him, his sword shifting to its regular shape.

"A pretty strong Fractiron, this guy is." Aeron remarked. "I actually bruised myself kicking him," he noted, pulling off his sock, revealing a bruise on the ball of his foot. "Ah well." He ran his fingers over the bruise and sent a green pulse of energy into it, healing the injury.

Then suddenly he was aware of a shadow looming over him and turned around. Fractiron was getting up, and he didn't look too happy. He threw his head back and let out a tremendous roar that reverberated across Kanto.

"W-what's it d-doing n-now?" Anabel asked, as the earth had begun shaking again.

"Call for family." Aeron replied, seemingly unaffected by the shaking earth.

Six bulges appeared in the ground, and they emitted an equal amount of Fractirons.

Ash and Anabel gasped as Aeron muttered, "A whole battle squad."

Aeron tightened his grip on his sword. This was going to be a rough fight.


	5. Skrub has no luck

"Axel, better hurry up!" Winona called backwards to her companion. She was flying on the back of her Altaria.

"Hey! You try to catch up to an Altaria when your speed is feeling sluggish after falling into a mud pool!" Axel shot back, annoyed that he had accidentally fallen into a pool of mud by forgetting to solidify reishi under his foot and falling out of the sky.

"Yeah, whatever." Winona muttered, shrugging. She looked through the sky. "Man. I haven't flown this far in a while," she commented. "It feels good to do this again."

Axel was having trouble with his flash steps at the moment. The mud on his body was slowing him down by a lot. He had to get it off or else he'd wear himself out too early.

He looked around and saw that there was nothing underneath them but water, water and more water. He quickly dove underneath the crashing waves and swam around, with the mud streaming off of his clothes.

Axel kept swimming until he was sure that he had gotten all the filth off and burst out of the ocean, quickly rejoining Winona in the sky.

"I see you got it off, hmm?" Winona asked.

"Yeah. I hope I don't do something stupid like the incident that caused me to fall out of the sky." Axel muttered.

Winona checked her Pokénav. "We should take a break. Sootopolis is just up ahead."

Axel saw the vast dormant volcano. "Alright. Bet I could beat you there!"

"You're on!" Winona said, grinning. The two sped off at high speed.

* * *

A Cipher Peon in silver armor watched the two speeding towards Sootopolis. He raised his wrist to his mouth. "Sir, we've found them."

"Good. Storm Sootopolis and capture the Fortree Gym Leader," came the reply. "We must have that Gym Leader."

"Understood, sir." Skrub replied. He signed off and looked at his lieutenant. "Gather our forces. We strike in five minutes."

"Yes, Captain Skrub." The lieutenant bowed, then ran off to carry out his orders.

"Hmm. The Fortree Gym Leader. What could they want with her?" Skrub wondered.

* * *

Axel landed on the ground. "I got here first!"

"Don't gloat! You had the advantage!" Winona grumbled as Altaria landed. Winona was annoyed that Axel had beaten her when he was only using his legs.

"Whatever." Axel said, shrugging. He waited as Winona recalled Altaria. "Let's go to the Pokémon Center."

"Sure, fine." They walked toward the Pokémon Center. Winona caught sight of Juan training for his next Gym Battle. She was about to greet him when Axel suddenly grabbed her by the shoulder and flung her to the ground and then jumped away.

Winona was about to ask what he did that for when a Solarbeam scorched the air that her head had just occupied. Her eyes widened in alarm and she instinctively rolled away, coming up on her feet.

A man with silver armor was standing in the background, with a Tropius at his side. The man was grinning savagely.

Winona narrowed her eyes at him. "What do you want?"

"We'd like it if you came with us, Gym Leader." Skrub replied, still grinning.

"In your dreams." Winona growled.

"Suit yourself." Skrub shrugged. "Tropius! Once more!"

Tropius pulled in the light, but Winona had forgotten that it was a pretty sunny day, so Tropius blasted it in a second. Winona braced herself for the impact, but Axel grabbed her and yanked her out of the way.

"Why do I have to watch the back of a Gym Leader Supervisor?" Axel grumbled as he hauled her onto a ledge. He then looked up at Skrub, flashing him an annoyed look. "Oh, it's you. Why don't you run home and cry to mommy or something?"

Winona noticed a mob of Cipher Peons behind them. "Um, Axel…"

Axel motioned for Winona to be quiet as Skrub roared in outrage. "Die, you demon! Tropius, Energy Ball!"

Axel watched calmly as the attack powered up. Then Tropius fired it at him. Axel merely dodged it Matrix style, using the classic lean backwards dodge. It zoomed over his head and smashed into a Cipher Peon's face. Tropius fired more, but Axel jumped over them, ducked out of the way, and batted them aside with his sword.

"Graar! Tropius, use Focus Energy, then fire Energy Ball!" Skrub shouted.

Tropius focused his power into the sphere, then accelerated it at Axel, who just looked at the attack with a bored look.

"_Sigh…_The stupidity of some people. While Energy Ball is a pretty strong attack…" Axel suddenly twirled his blade and sliced the sphere in half. The two halves passed on either side of him and struck down a pair of unfortunate Cipher Peons who picked a bad time to jump him.

"…that kind of thing could happen?" Winona asked. Her companion nodded.

Skrub was furious. Furious that the nitwit in blue could outmaneuver his every move, furious that his underlings managed to get hit by every single one of his Energy Balls, furious that he had dealt every single one of those blows.

"Well? I don't have time to deal with losers like you Cipher Peons. If you're going to waste my time, then be quick about it and make it worth my while." Axel called to Skrub. "Otherwise, I'd like to end this quickly."

"Fine. Go! Staraptor!"

Instantly, Winona saw that the Staraptor was no ordinary Pokémon. Its eyes were cold and menacing, unlike the usual intimidating gaze that Staraptor normally gives. All its muscles were tense.

Axel gazed at it. "Shadow Pokémon, right?"

"Right. You're a sharp one, punk."

Axel sighed. "Are you going to insult me," _or are you going to attack?_

Skrub jumped, startled by the telepathy. _These guys are freaks!_ He thought, shivering. Lately, Cipher had been plagued by troubles from this teen and his brother. He remembered the last fiasco he had witnessed:

* * *

_"Hey! Who the h*** are you?!"_

_A teenager with black hair and emerald green eyes stood at the gates of a Cipher base. He approached, seeming to glide like a shadow._

_"I said, who are you?!" hollered the Cipher Peon, raising his Pokéball._

_"My name is not important," came the answer. "What is important is what you intend to do when staring in the eyes of Death." The boy held up his hand, and a rod of light arced into it, forming a blade sheathed in a scabbard the same color as his eyes._

_"What're you talking about, fool?" shouted the guard._

_"I'm only giving you one warning: _All storms of this worldstand by my side._"_

_The blade began changing. The sheath dissolved and the blade began glowing emerald green, transfiguring into a double-edged sword that gleamed with untold power._

_"_Rage…Tsubasa no Rai-oh!" _Aeron, for it was him, shouted._

_"S-s-stay back! I-I could kill you!"_

_"Really? You and what army?" Aeron asked, his voice echoing eerily in the darkness._

* * *

_"AIIIYYYIIIIII!!!!!!!!!"_

_Axel sighed as he heard the scream. Aeron emphasized the marigold far too well. If there was anyone who could scare a ruler of terror, it was Aeron._

_"Well, c'mon, Pikachu. It's not often that we get to laugh at the Gameboy level security in Cipher bases._" _Axel called._

_"Pikachu!" His friend agreed._

_Suddenly, a contingent of Cipher Peons filed out and surrounded Axel._

_"It's you! That Nightblazer creep!"_

_Axel smiled. They knew his last name well._

_Axel's name was different from Aeron's because they had made their last names themselves. Aeron had chosen Solo for his reasons. Axel chose Nightblazer for reasons about to be revealed…_

_"I forewarn you, you will not beat the ruler of the nighttime skies during the hours of darkness." Axel told them, drawing his blade. The hilt was wrapped in a midnight blue cloth, and the silvery guard was circular, with the phases of the moon inscribed around the perimeter. The blade itself shone like it __**was **__the moonlight. All in all, a pretty cool weapon._

_Axel smiled. "Meet Shiruba-getsu (Silver moon), my partner in battle for nearly all of time." He saw that all eyes were drawn to his blade. "Like it? Well, you won't like what comes next."_

_He then pointed the blade at the night sky. "Rule over the nighttime skies."_

_"SHIRUBA-GETSU!!" He shouted, as the blade began glowing light blue. It then began dissolving starting with the tip, until it reached his hand, upon which a silver, fingerless gauntlet began forming. It extended all the way to his elbow, upon which its details were revealed. The openings in the gaunt were surrounded with the phases of the moon, emphasized by glowing blue. On the back of his hand was a glowing blue crescent moon. The gauntlet itself glimmered like the blade did in its sealed state, still emanating its mysterious light._

_Axel raised his hand, and then a glowing blue blade of energy extended from his fingertips. "How do you like it now, eh?"_

_The Cipher Peons realized that they were in trouble. They ran for it as Axel slashed through the wall of the main building with careless ease._

_"Hmm. A few million years hasn't changed how easy it is for me to cut through walls." Axel noted, retracting the blade. "C'mon, Pikachu. Let's wreck their latest project."_

* * *

_"Shoot him! C'mon!"_

_Aeron was dodging between the crossfire of thirty different guns, not to mention various Pokémon attacks._

_Aeron looked up at the sniper tower and saw Espeon creeping up on the sniper._

Hiiii-yaahh!!_ Espeon shouted as she whipped her tail around, which was flashing white._

_The sniper never had a chance. He went down, rendered unconscious from the force of Espeon's Iron Tail._

_Aeron winced on the sniper's behalf. He'd felt that one before._

_The green-clothed young man whipped his blade around and slashed, sending a blade of air slicing toward a particularly troublesome weapon. The kamaitachi sliced the gun clean in half lengthwise, with hardly any resistance. The man wielding it wisely abandoned it and ducked moments before the attack whipped through the area where his head had just occupied, slicing into the steel that comprised the wall behind him and shredding it like scissors through cloth._

_The men gaped at the wall. Then they freaked out and ran for it._

_Aeron rolled his eyes as he held out his sword arm. Espeon jumped down from the tower and landed lightly on it._

Cipher Peons are such chickens,_ he thought to Espeon._

So? Chickens _are_ kind of tasty. _Espeon replied._

_Aeron stared at her in shock. _You didn't-

Relax. I'm just making a wisecrack. I haven't taken a bite. Yet.

_Aeron sighed. _Some Pokémon just _love_ to mess with you. _Aeron thought to himself._

I heard that._ Espeon told him._

* * *

_Axel raced into a room with a lot of equipment. There were all sorts of schematics around the room, and tons of data scrolling around on the screen._

_Aeron ran up. "You dealt with the guards?"_

_Axel nodded. "You too, huh?"_

_It was Aeron's turn to nod. "Now, what's going on here?"_

_Axel looked at the screen. There was a schematic for a machine. Axel looked at the function._

_"...place the Pokéball into the slot, and it will be turned into a Shadow Pokémon."_

_Axel scrolled around until he found "shadow Pokémon"._

_Pikachu began reading and then recoiled in alarm. "PI-KA!" he shouted, pointing to a certain section. Axel looked at the text and read, "These Pokémon are created by closing the door to their heart..." Axel kept reading with growing horror, "so as to stop contact with emotions and increasing their fighting capabilities." Axel read the entire entry, and when he had finished, all present felt nauseous._

_"They never cease to think of random science projects, huh?" Aeron asked, unclasping his APW and placing it on the module. Aeron pulled up a screen and began creating a file._

_"What're you doing, bro?" Axel asked._

_"Creating a Mera Bounta virus." Aeron replied._

Meaning? _Espeon asked._

_"It's a deadly virus that will devour all data on a hard drive and ruin it. There isn't any antivirus in the world that can stop it. I use this when I want mass deletion of a large amount of data. By downloading this into the hard drive, I can ruin all their plans for the next decade. Also, any files that it "eats" are transmitted directly to my APW and I can scan through them to see what they were doing."_

_Pikachu held up a huge sign that said: "Mass Corruption!" for emphasis._

_Aeron nodded. "Exactly." He hit a final key. The screens of all the computers flickered and turned to static. Aeron picked up his APW and they ran._

_"I don't think they'll be doing stuff for a while," Axel said._

_Suddenly, a Garchomp barred their way, snarling into their faces and bombarding them with bad breath._

_"WAAAAHHHHH!!!!!" Axel and Aeron freaked out. They had not been expecting the Garchomp, and had not expected the dragon-ground type pseudo-legendary to snarl into their face and try to suffocate them with the smell._

No! _Espeon yelled_. Aw, man, now I'll never get this stink out of my fur!

_"Forget that! My nose is killing me!" Aeron yelled. "What the h*** is with this Garchomp?! What's it been eating lately?!"_

_Thinking fast, Pikachu grabbed a bucket of water the janitor had accidentally left there. He threw the water into the Garchomp's mouth. The Garchomp gargled in surprise. Pikachu then proceeded to kick the Garchomp in the face._

_The Garchomp roared, and Aeron suddenly sensed its anger blowing its top. There was something wrong about _this_ anger, though. It was as if it was going into a berserker state._

_Garchomp lashed out with Dragon Rush, slamming Pikachu. Pikachu staggered back, stunned. The Garchomp had dealt a critical. Then Espeon put her and the Garchomp's heads together with a Zen Headbutt._

_Garchomp was not pleased by this and lashed out with Dragon Claw. Espeon screamed in pain as the attack connected, because Garchomp had somehow struck another critical._

_Aeron frowned. _Espeon, I'm sorry, but I need you to take another hit.

Why? _Espeon wondered. _You'd better have a good reason.

Just do it. I need to confirm something.

Alright, but I'm not going to go down without a fight. _Espeon clubbed Garchomp with an Iron Tail, then yelled in pain again as Garchomp bit her, once again critical._

_"I knew it. Somehow this Garchomp's critical hit ratio is increased." At this point, Chikorita zoomed up and used Solarbeam on Garchomp. (It was sunny that day.) Garchomp snarled and used Dragon Pulse on Chikorita, and for the fourth time in a row, it was critical._

_Aeron held out his arm. "Axel, I need to take this Garchomp. There's something not right about it, and I need to find out what it is."_

_"Well, how do you suggest we do it? It's not like we can capture it, 'cause it's got a registered trainer." Axel glanced at his twin brother, noting that Aeron was withdrawing a Pokéball shaped object from his pack._

_"Actually..." Aeron tapped the button. It began shifting into a device that encased his entire arm with its green metal._

_"What is that, bro?" Axel asked. Chikorita charged with a Take Down._

_Aeron held a Pokéball in the palm of his hand. "_Felus Caran."_ Aeron muttered. The Pokéball was immediately energized with a strange aura that was orange and flared out as a claw-like projection. Then Aeron threw the Pokéball, and the claw became more evident. It soared through the air and hit the Garchomp, pulling it inside. Chikorita, who had been using Take Down, zoomed into thin air, screamed, and crashed headlong into the wall._

_Axel watched in horror as the Pokéball shook a few times and then pulsated, letting them know that the Garchomp had been captured. "What did you do?"_

_"I energized the Pokéball with a corrupted berserker energy that would steal it away from its previous owner's ownership." Chikorita rubbed her head, groaning and complaining loudly._

_"Why did you invent this object?" Axel asked._

_"Far too often I've seen Pokémon mistreated over the years. I decided that I would take the Pokémon of trainers that abuse them for-huh?" He turned and saw a bucket._

"Hi, Aeron!"_ Pikachu shouted. The bucket raised a little and moved forward._

_"Hi, Bucket head." Aeron replied, turning around. The bucket zoomed through the air towards Aeron._

_"_Headbutt attack! " _Pikachu shouted. The bucket crashed into Aeron's butt. _

_"AAARGH!!!!" Aeron yelled. "That wasn't a headbutt attack; that was a head-to-butt attack!" "_What's the difference? " _Pikachu asked._

_"You're hopeless!" Aeron grumbled. He turned to Axel. "Let's talk after our getaway, eh?" Axel nodded._

_"Hold on!" They heard. They turned and saw a silver armored Cipher Peon with a blue scarf._

_"What do you want?" Aeron asked._

_"I'm here to kick your butts!" Skrub shouted._

_"Really? How are you going to do that?" Axel asked._

_"I'm just going to teach you punks not to mess with Cipher!"_

_"Sorry, but we don't have time for entertainment. I'm sure it would be amusing to battle you, but we don't have time to spare."_

_"Well then. I'm just gonna have to use this!" Skrub shouted, hefting a bazooka onto his shoulder._

_"I thought you people don't like to use weapons and use Pokémon instead." Aeron commented._

_"Well we choose to do things the easy way when punks like you invade our stronghold." Skrub said._

_Aeron's mouth twitched. Axel recognized that particular twitch. It was the one that Aeron sometimes made when he was especially annoyed. "Get lost." Aeron muttered._

_"Take this!" Skrub yelled, and fired off a shot. The lethal explosive flew straight towards the green-eyed young man._

_Aeron rolled his eyes and held out his hand. The missile slammed into it and exploded. When the smoke cleared, however, Aeron was completely unscathed._

_"I…" Aeron whipped his sword up high._

_"…don't…" He slashed vertically._

_"…have…" The slash produced a blade of wind that sliced through the air towards the silver-armored Cipher Peon._

_"…time…" The blade split the bazooka down the length of the barrel._

_"…for this crap." Aeron zoomed toward Skrub and then slugged him in the midsection and sent the unfortunate man flying for fifty feet down the hallway._

_Skrub slammed into the first wall there was to slam into and fell onto the floor, unmoving._

_"Let's go. He'll live." Aeron and Axel raced out of the building with their Pokémon close behind._

_"After them!" a Cipher Peon shouted._

_Thousands of bullets tore up the area around them._

_"I don't think they like us much, eh?" Aeron asked Axel._

_"Well, we did wreck their base." Axel replied._

_"We did?" Aeron was a bit puzzled._

_A massive explosion tore through the base, wrecking a good chunk of the main building._

_"We did now." Axel said, grinning._

_"Cheeky devil." Aeron muttered, also grinning._

_They ran up to the top of a cliff. The Cipher Peons ran up, thinking that they had them cornered._

_"Well now. I'd say things are looking bad for our heroes." Aeron commented._

_"He should be here by now," Axel commented, checking his APW._

He is. He's just waiting. _Espeon informed them._

_"Well, I guess we say farewell to Cipher." Aeron said._

_"_Farewell! _" Pikachu called, waving at the Cipher Peons._

_"Look out below!" Aeron hollered, as he and Axel raced off the edge and took a flying leap into the air._

_A Cipher Peon ran to the edge as they sank out of sight. He looked around, wondering where his target went. Then a loud roar tore through the heavens, and a green dragon with yellow symbols patterned across its skin rose into the air. With the man's targets riding on its back, waving and grinning from ear to ear._

_"D*** it! They got away!" The man swore, cursing the twins._

_Then the green eyed one raised his hand, a sphere held in it. About the size of a head._

_"Huh?" The guy asked._

_Aeron threw the sphere with all his strength at a certain point. The sphere zoomed past the guy's head and homed in on the destroyed Cipher Base._

What's that thing for, I wonder? _The man wondered._

* * *

_Skrub was exiting the doorway of the base when suddenly he saw a glint in the distance. "Huh?" He squinted and searched for the glint._

_Then he saw a white sphere zooming at him, clocking it at about 100 mph. "What the-?" _

_The sphere zoomed past his head and slammed into the wall with a splat. Skrub felt a strange liquid splatter against his neck._

_"Yuck! What is that?!" Skrub asked, turning around to see a blood-like liquid splattered across the wall._

_Then the liquid dripped down the wall, seeming to form a shape. _"_"What is it?" Skrub wondered._

_The liquid dripped down to reveal a rhombus with a kanji three in it, and that symbol was plastered upon the marigold. All around the edge of the marigold were the words, "__**Sayonara suckers**__!!" over and over again._

_"WHAA!!! THIS LOOKS LIKE IT WAS WRITTEN BY A MURDER VICTIM! WITH HIS OWN BLOOD!!!!!! THIS BETTER GO AWAY!!!!!"_

_Then Skrub noticed the words, 'P.S.' "Huh? P.S.?"_

_The liquid revealed the following message: _

_**To those who think that this is some written-in-a-murder-victim's-blood horror movie cliché:**_

_**YOU HAVE NO SENSE OF HUMOR. BIG TIME.**_

_"SHUT UP!!" Skrub hollered, kicking at the wall. Not so smart._

_"OWWWW!!!!!!" Skrub yelled, hopping around, clutching his foot. The wall was made of steel. Skrub booted the wall with all his strength. The result: His foot will have a lovely bruise in the morning. A true work of art (sarcasm)._

_Then Skrub noticed 'P.P.S.' "What now?"_

_The message said these words:_

_**Have fun 'Skrub'bing away at this message!**_

_Needless to say, he was "skrubbing" for a long time._

"Yo!! **S**tupid **K**rappy **R**etarded **U**gly **B**anana!! You listening?!"

Skrub was snapped back to the present when he realized that Axel was yelling at him.

"Are you going to attack, or are you going to make a fool of yourself?" Axel asked, holding up a Pokéball.

Skrub recognized instantly what Axel was going to do. For a long time, Cipher's plans to use Shadow Pokémon in their quest to conquer the world had been foiled by the existence of Snag Machines. The twins had been the first to use them, which had given Cipher the idea of creating them and giving them to Snagem to catch Pokémon in Orre. Of course, their own plans backfired, as Wes Silvershades, the best Snagger in Snagem, had rebelled and stolen all the Shadow Pokémon they had created one by one. Then came the time when they restaged the attack, which resulted in Michael Rosso bringing Cipher to its knees in a similar fashion. Since then, the Snag Machine had become a symbol of doom for Cipher. Every single member of Cipher knew that if they ever saw one, they were screwed. Skrub had been stolen from by Wes already. He did not want to lose another Shadow Pokémon.

Skrub shouted, "Staraptor, use Shadow Sky!"

The sky turned dark and mysterious. Then flashing light struck down and buffeted Axel, causing him instinctively shield himself, and drop the Pokéball.

"What in-?" Axel wondered, then looked at the sky. "Hmm. Shadow Sky is a weather condition, then." he noted.

"That's right! And it's gonna keep draining your health the longer you stand in it!" Skrub gloated.

Axel looked annoyed. "What a pain. I have to take the effort of changing the weather just to avoid making a bigger effort to stay conscious."

Winona raised an eyebrow. "You're lazy?"

"No. I like to relax, and I like to avoid using too much energy." Axel raised his hands, and the dark purple clouds blew away to reveal the sun.

"That's being lazy!" "Is not!" "Is too!" "Is not!" "Is too!" Winona and Axel began arguing. Skrub's annoyance grew with every passing moment. Annoyance at them for arguing when he was ready to battle them, annoyance at Axel for being able to wish away Shadow Sky, and annoyance at the whole world for making things so complicated.

"HEY!!! I AM YOUR OPPONENT!!! I WANT A CHALLENGE GOD D*** IT!!!" Skrub hollered, attracting the attention of the two, snapping them out of their argument.

Axel and Winona stared at him. "He's loud, isn't he?" Axel asked. Winona nodded in agreement. "Well, I guess I can't argue. I kinda like to battle, 'cause it tests how good your commanding skills are, especially when you have to relax."

"What does relaxation have to do with anything? " Winona wondered.

"You have to relax in battle to be able to prepare for incoming attacks. Being tense all the time will only screw you up with all that excess tension."

"Okay..." Winona was not getting it, but just shrugged. It was his way of battle.

"Well, I guess it's us two versus you, **S**tupid **K**rappy **R**etarded **U**gly **B**anana." Axel said, grasping a Pokéball on his belt.

"My name is Skrub!" Skrub hollered.

"Yeah, that's what I said. Skrub stands for **S**tupid **K**rappy **R**etarded **U**gly **B**anana, don'tcha know?" Axel asked.

"I hate you Nightblazer!" Skrub hollered.

"You're in good company," Axel muttered.

* * *

_Cipher Captain Skrub would like to battle!_

"You know the rules, so we're not gonna go over them." Skrub said.

"Whatever." Winona replied, selecting a Pokéball from her belt. "Go! Aerodactyl!"

Winona's only Rock-type Pokémon came out of her Pokéball, eager to battle.

"Glaceon, I choose you!" Axel called, sending his Glaceon into battle.

Skrub gulped. His opponents had chosen Pokémon that had type advantages over his. This was not good.

"Aerodactyl, use Sky Attack on Tropius!" Winona called.

Aerodactyl let off a harsh light as she soared into the tropical Pokémon, smashing into it with enough force to push Tropius back about ten feet and severely damage it.

_Glaceon, follow up on that with Ice Beam!_ Axel ordered.

Glaceon summoned a beam of icy energy and accelerated it toward Tropius, knocking it out due to the extreme type advantage.

"Grr, Staraptor! Shadow Storm!"

Staraptor lashed out with a whirlwind of Shadow energy that smashed into both Pokémon, reducing their hitpoints by a significant amount.

_Glaceon, you okay?_ Axel asked, concerned.

_Yeah, just fine. That Shadow Storm had some force behind it!_ Glaceon remarked through their mental link.

_If that's the case, then just Flash Freeze her! She won't be able to attack for a bit._

Glaceon closed her eyes and then concentrated. Moments later, Staraptor was frozen solidly in a block of ice.

"Wha-?" Skrub was really confused. No ice type moves were known to instantly freeze a Pokémon solid without damaging them. Yet, here one was.

Skrub shook off his surprise. "Go! Golem!"

In case you're wondering why Golem wasn't sent out earlier, Skrub thought that Staraptor's Shadow Storm would be enough to finish their Pokémon in one fell swoop. He clearly underestimated the power of our heroes!

"Golem, use Rock Slide!"

Both Winona and Axel knew that if their Pokémon were caught up in that, they were going to be taken out quick.

_Glaceon, now would be a good time for an Ice Barrier!_

"Aerodactyl, fly over it!"

Glaceon and Aerodactyl carried out their trainers' commands. Glaceon let out a cry of defiance as she froze the stones closest to her together to form a large barrier of ice and rock, holding back the avalanche. Aerodactyl soared up and over the attack, getting into position for an Iron Tail. She looked back at Winona for confirmation, and saw her trainer nod. "Do it." Winona said.

Aerodactyl roared as she whipped her tail around, which was glowing like a lightbulb. Golem didn't react in time, and so he got smashed in the face. (Ouch!)

Golem fell, taken out by the powerful attack. Skrub growled in frustration, returning Golem to his Pokéball. "Go! Wobbuffet!"

"Wobbuffet!" Skrub's Wobbuffet saluted him and turned around for battle.

Skrub turned to Staraptor. "C'mon, Staraptor, thaw out already!"

As if on cue, Staraptor broke out of the ice. She was not happy at all, and was eager for revenge.

Axel narrowed his eyes at Staraptor. "She's going to go to Reverse mode." He held out his hand, and whirled out a Pokéball in the palm of his Snag Machine.

Skrub noticed. "Oh, no you don't. Staraptor, Aerial Ace on the Pokéball!"

Axel was forced to jump backwards as Staraptor charged at the Pokéball, yanking it out of reach. Then he noticed. "Where'd it go?!!"

Staraptor suddenly turned red and zoomed into a Pokéball...held by an Aipom!

"You cheeky monkey," Axel muttered.

The Pokéball shook once, twice, three times, and then Staraptor erupted out, really pissed off.

"Shoot. I forgot to weaken her." Axel muttered, annoyed at himself for forgetting the crucial bit of catching Pokémon. "Aipom, keep the Pokéball, okay? Hit Staraptor with it when I tell you to."

"Aipom!" Aipom replied cheerfully, nodding.

Winona observed the Staraptor, noticing how her anger was going overboard. "Is Reverse mode a really bad sign?"

"Yeah, why?" Axel asked.

"I think this Staraptor just went into it." Winona answered.

Axel looked at the Staraptor. He noticed the Spirit energy emitting from her wasn't the usual purple clouds that Shadow Pokémon usually generate. It was currently more like scarlet fire, raging wildly. "Mm-hm. She's in Reverse Mode. She must be pretty ticked off."

"Why? Are Shadow Pokémon usually short-tempered?"

"Kind of. When a Pokémon with the Shadow element gets really ticked off, its Shadow converts into a higher level Forbidden element called Demon, which isn't that different from Shadow, except its wielders get a boosted critical hit ratio. That state is known to many as Reverse Mode. Reverse Mode can have some advantages, as the heightened critical hit ratio may allow you to win matches faster. There's great risk, though. Regular Pokémon possessing the Demon element tend to go berserk and refuse to listen to their trainers, acting with minds of their own."

"Also, because most Shadow Pokémon actually can't handle the Demon element, it tends to backfire on them, hurting them as time goes on. Unless you call a Shadow Pokémon's name and snap it back to reality, it will faint from the damage that remaining in Reverse Mode deals to it. Right now Staraptor is really ticked off at us for doing what we did, and will now get damaged slowly as time goes on while she deals out heavy damage."

"Well that's just great. How are we going to catch her?" Winona asked.

Axel looked at her. "How do you think we'll do it?"

"The usual way?" Winona asked.

Axel nodded. "By hacking away at her hit points and lobbing a Pokéball at her."

"That sounds like fun." Winona remarked with some sarcasm, turning back to the battle. "Aerodactyl, lob some rocks at them."

Aerodactyl created a Rockslide of her own that cascaded down upon her opponents.

"Wobbuffet, Counter it!" Skrub shouted.

Wobbuffet tried to counter it, but Aerodactyl was just too fast for it. The Rockslide smashed into Wobbuffet. "WOB!" it screamed as it went down.

Staraptor got caught up in the Rockslide as well, taking off a huge amount of her hit points.

"Staraptor, use Shadow Sky!" Skrub shouted.

Staraptor, however, was really mad at Aerodactyl, and instead of following Skrub's order, flew at Aerodactyl screaming, "_TAKE THIS YOU B****!!!_" as she charged and smashed into Aerodactyl with Shadow End.

Aerodactyl screeched as she took extremely heavy damage. It was so extreme that she fell out of the sky and fainted.

"Aerodactyl, return!" Winona called, returning the fossil Pokémon to her Pokéball. "Nice job out there. We'll win this for you," she promised.

Axel looked at her. "Nice choice of words," he commented, "but we need to focus. Staraptor's really low on HP right now. It's the perfect time to snag her."

"I might have a solution." Winona said, pulling up another Pokéball.

"Oh? And what's that?" Axel asked, looking at her.

"Go! Altaria! Show how well you can Sing!"

Axel was puzzled for a split second, then he caught on. "Oh, boy," he muttered, moving his headphones over his ears and pumping the volume to maximum.

Winona herself put on a pair of earmuffs just as Altaria began singing a lullaby to Staraptor. Staraptor resisted at first, but then she succumbed to the sweet music and landed, snoring before she hit the ground.

Axel nodded, impressed. "Good work." He motioned for Aipom to bring him the Pokéball. "Here." He placed the Pokéball in Winona's hand.

Winona stared at it. "You'd really let me snag her?"

Axel shrugged. "You did the hard work. You should get to have a new Pokémon."

Winona nodded in thanks, then threw the Snag ball after re-energizing it. "Go! Snag Ball!"

The Snag Ball struck Staraptor and pulled her inside, then landed. It shook once, twice, three times, then pulsated gently. Winona picked it up and looked at it, then raised it over her head. "Staraptor, you're mine!" she said, happy that she had another flying Pokémon.

Skrub groaned. For the second time already he had lost a Shadow Pokémon. "Great. Now what?" he moaned. He had no more Pokémon.

Winona shrugged, then had an idea. She whispered in Axel's ear, to which he nodded.

Axel whirled out a pair of handcuffs. "You, Skrub, are under arrest for assaulting the Hoenn League Supervisor!" he declared, cuffing Skrub.

"Huh? What're you talking about? You're not a police-!" He stopped midsentence when Axel held up a deputy badge. "Oh that's just perfect."

"Tough luck, **S**tupid **K**rappy **R**etarded **U**gly **B**anana." Axel commented.

"IT'S- oh never mind." Skrub muttered as Winona got Axel to cuff up the rest of the Cipher Peons.

Axel stood up tall. "Well, Supervisor, I 'm gonna throw these bozos in jail and then we can meet up with Wallace in Evergrande. How does that sound?"

"Just fine." Winona said. She looked at her new Shadow Pokémon. "What were the words again?"

"_Hiyuru a aros_. But perhaps you should try developing a bond with Staraptor before you purify her." Axel suggested.

"Huh? Why?"

"She might not listen to you after you purify her unless you can earn her respect. It's better to earn her respect first before purification than having a Pokémon not listen to you in the middle of a battle."

"I take your point." Winona said, putting the Pokéball away. "Still, I thought it would be kind of cool to purify a Pokémon for the first time."

"And you will, but not right now. Besides, Shadow Pokémon that are purified after enduring numerous battles regain the EXP points that they would have gained if they were regular Pokémon.

"I thought they gained EXP points anyway?"

"Nope. They actually stay at the same level of power until they are reverted to a normal Pokémon. This means that they won't get stronger."

"That's quite a kick in the face," Winona remarked.

"Well, Cipher is known for its shortcomings. They come up with an elaborate plan and prepare to carry it out, and then it all falls apart because they overlooked something in the planning stage."

"Hmm. You sound like you know a lot about these guys," Winona remarked as they led Skrub and his subordinates to Sootopolis City's jail.

"Well, I _have_ been a thorn in their sides for a few years." _More like a few trillion_ Axel thought as he threw the guys in some jail cells.

Juan ran over. "Supervisor! Are you alright?"

"Kind of late, Juan." Winona remarked, raising an eyebrow.

"Um, well, I was observing your battle. I forgot myself until after it was finished. My must humble apologies, madam."

"It's alright, Juan. I was doing fine. And I am fine, to answer your question."

"If I may, Supervisor, what brings you to Sootopolis?" Juan asked.

"Oh, just a rest stop. We're going to be leaving in half an hour."

"To where?"

"Evergrande city. I need to talk with Wallace about a certain subject."

"Is it the, er, Shadow Pokémon business?"

Winona raised an eyebrow. "Eavesdropping, Juan? I didn't know it was your style."

Juan looked a little embarrassed. "Well, I was somewhat curious as to what you were doing with that teenager."

"Oh! Sorry, I forgot to introduce you. Juan, this is Axel, and Axel, this is Juan, the final Gym Leader."

Axel extended his hand. "A pleasure to meet you, sir."

"I am pleased to meet you too. Say, how do you know each other?"

"We were having a Gym Battle earlier today, but then Cipher attacked in the middle of it." Axel informed him.

"Axel fought off the Cipher Peon and told me about what Cipher was. Then he gave me a Snag Machine for when a Shadow Pokémon shows up."

"Now we're off to recruit the League Champion to help take down Cipher." Axel said.

Juan pondered for a bit. "Is there anything the rest of us Gym Leaders can do?"

"Yes. Keep a lookout for Cipher Peons and take them out, but make sure their Shadow Pokémon do not leave the area until we arrive." Winona said.

"Good plan, except I'm not quite sure how to identify a Shadow Pokémon." Juan said, nervously.

"Oh! I almost forgot!" Axel reached into his pack and pulled out a pair of eyepieces. "Put these on."

Winona put her eyepiece on. "Okay, what's it for?"

"These are special eyepieces that can detect the aura of Shadow Pokémon. However, my brother also included a number of other functions into them that make them useful in any situation. For example, he out in a telescopic function to allow you to look at things a long way away. There are other functions there that you could also find useful."

Winona cycled through all the different functions, getting a feel for how they worked. "You can set multiple functions on at the same time?"

"Yeah. My bro' made that possible. I'm not quite sure how he does all this, but it's a good thing he's able to.

"Are these always up, or do they retract?" Juan asked, looking around.

"Press the side of the part that keeps it up and it'll retract into the main mechanism."

They did so, and the eyepieces retracted. "Ok, so what now?"

Axel handed Juan six other eyepieces. "Hand these out to the other Gym Leaders and tell them what they must do."

Juan nodded. "Understood."

Winona called out Altaria. "I think we should be going."

Axel nodded. "I think so too. See you, Juan."

"Good luck." He watched as the two left. "You'll probably need it."


	6. Fractiron x7 vs Our heroes

Aeron looked at the seven Fractiron that were in the clearing.

_Hmm. Now how should I do this?_ He wondered.

Ordinarily, Aeron would have fought them himself, one on seven. That wouldn't be a good idea here, though. Aeron couldn't fight at full power if he knew that someone would get caught up in the fight. In this case, it would be Ash and Anabel. Aeron had no intention of letting harm befall his pupil, and didn't want to be the cause of harm to Ash Ketchum.

There was only one option left, then. He would have to do this the old-fashioned way.

"Lucario! Infernape! Garchomp! Metagross! Help me out, guys!"

The four Pokémon came out of their Pokéballs and were raring to go.

"Huh? Why four?

"My last one's coming in a moment." Aeron whistled, a sound that echoed across Kanto for miles.

A roar shook the land as an enormous green dragon with golden highlights flew out of the clouds and came down, landing lightly on the ground.

Ash gaped. "No way! That's-!"

"Guys, meet Rayquaza. My old friend." Aeron said.

Rayquaza glanced down at Ash and Ash saw a flare of recognition in the majestic green dragon's eyes. _I remember you. You were present in my battle with Amethyst._

"Amethyst?" Ash asked, confused.

Rayquaza snorted in annoyance. _The Deoxys with the amethyst colored organ. Surely you haven't forgotten him already?_

"Deoxys has a proper name?" Ash asked.

_Aeron is friends with the Deoxys Duo, Emerald and Amethyst. They are his Pokémon, as am I. Of course, mostly he lets us roam free wherever we choose. He's that kind of guy._

"How did he summon you?"

_We can hear his whistling because he imbues it with his spiritual power, enabling it to reach the ears of those who he wishes to hear it._

"Wow. That's pretty cool." Ash said.

_Of course, you could probably do something similar. Aura Guardians use similar techniques._

"Huh?"

_Never mind. I'll tell you about it after I take down this cranky dinosaur._

Rayquaza let out a roar and rushed forward with Sky Attack. His target roared too and opened his mouth, absorbing the force of Sky Attack with a white ball of energy.

Rayquaza realized what was about to happen and flew high into the air. Just in time, too. Fractiron's Metal Burst tore through the air where Rayquaza had just occupied moments before.

_Too slow, Fractiron! _Rayquaza taunted as he came down with his Fly attack. Fractiron staggered from the impact, then regained his balance and curled into a ball. Soon he was rolling at super high speed towards Rayquaza.

_Rayquaza, look out! _Espeon shouted. A Fractiron had charged at her with Iron Head earlier, and the unfortunate dinosaur soon found its head smashed into the dirt. Espeon's Psychic was pretty powerful.

Rayquaza roared in pain as Fractiron connected. Rayquaza flew backwards and whipped his tail around, which was glowing white. Fractiron crashed into Rayquaza's Iron Tail, but then sparks began flying.

_Sparks?! Just how fast is this Fractiron spinning?!_Rayquaza wondered. He pulled back and opened his mouth. Bright blue flames began forming in his throat, which glowed brighter and brighter. His golden rings began shining with inner power. Ash and Anabel watched, fascinated.

_Take this! Dragon Fire!_

Rayquaza unleashed a powerful blast of fire that engulfed his foe's body in its entirety. The sheer force of the blast was enough to cause a pile of twigs a few feet away to catch fire. When Rayquaza finally let up, Fractiron had been charred to a crisp. The powerful steel-fighting Pokémon fell over, out cold.

"Go, Heavy Ball!" Aeron shouted, throwing a heavy ball at the injured Fractiron. It snared it, pulled it in, and then locked.

"Another one down," Aeron said, picking up the Pokéball.

Meanwhile, Metagross was locked in combat with another Fractiron, rapidly exchanging blows.

Metagross pulled back its arm and swung it at its foe, using Hammer Arm. Fractiron roared and met the attack with High Jump Kick. The attacks met in a large explosion. Yet, when the smoke cleared, neither had been fazed at all.

Metagross pulled back and powered up Giga Impact. Fractiron jumped back, flicking its tail, which suddenly began glowing white, signifying the use of Iron Tail.

Metagross rushed forward to complete Giga Impact. Fractiron whipped its glowing tail around and struck Metagross at the same time that Metagross crashed into it, resulting in another energy wave.

Aeron was observing this, and was confident that Metagross was doing okay. He turned to observe the other battles going on.

Infernape was dashing around, trailing fire as he used Flame Wheel. At the same time, his opponent was using Rollout, and they crashed, but pulled away, circling each other and then clashing again.

Garchomp had been nailed in the face by a Focus Punch earlier. Uh-uh. Big mistake. Garchomp was currently roaring triumphantly with his foot planted on an unconscious Fractiron.

Aeron threw another Heavy Ball and caught the Fractiron. "Another one to add to my collection," he muttered, putting it away.

Lucario and his foe were wrestling with each other, and the latter was currently winning. Its enormous size and muscle mass allowed it to force Lucario backwards inch by inch.

"C'mon, Lucario, use Low Kick and blast him into the sky!" Aeron shouted.

Lucario whipped back his foot, and brought it up again, sending Fractiron high into the sky.

"Now, use Aura Storm!"

_But Aeron, that's an experimental attack! _Lucario protested. _It might not work!_

"Now is the perfect time to try it. If it doesn't work, then just barrage him with Aura Spheres."

_Yes sir._Lucario raised his paws. Aura gathered at his back and poured into his hands. It almost looked like Lucario had wings. Then, Lucario focused the Aura and channeled it at his falling foe as a large beam that engulfed it and slammed it even higher.

"Rayquaza, get above him and finish it up with Thunder!" Aeron commanded.

Rayquaza flew high up and summoned a powerful lightning bolt that arced into Fractiron's body, sending a large amount of electricity down into the unfortunate steel-fighting type. Then, as an added bonus, he grasped Fractiron and finished up with a Seismic Toss, hitting the ground with enough force to blow a crater in it, sending up a large amount of earth and dust.

When the clouds finally dissipated, Rayquaza flew up and declared, _I am victorious!_

"That's a relief," Aeron remarked, catching that one too.

Anabel was focusing on Espeon's battle. Even though she had seen her in action several times, Aeron's Espeon still amazed her with her strength. Espeon had picked up her foe with Psychic and slammed him down into the ground a total of eight times already, and she wasn't even breaking a sweat. Not only that, she had also added in some Physical attacks like Iron Tail, Extremespeed, and Zen Headbutt, and she hadn't hurt herself on Fractiron's iron hard skin.

Espeon looked at Fractiron with annoyance as the stubborn Armor Dino got up for the umpteenth time. _Still itching to fight? Well, I bet you won't be after this._

Espeon pulled back and closed her eyes. Suddenly, arcs of flame twirled into a sphere in front of her, which grew rapidly.

"Hey, isn't that-?" Anabel asked, shocked.

_Blast Burn!! _Espeon shouted.

The ball of fire turned into a raging torrent of fire that roared through the air to engulf Fractiron. The armor dinosaur roared as it was engulfed in the raging inferno, and fell, finally defeated.

Aeron captured the defeated Pokémon with an Ultra Ball. "Good work, Espeon."

His response was Espeon pouncing on him and nuzzling him briefly before jumping off and joining Infernape's battle with the last Fractiron.

Then Aeron frowned. Metagross was locked in combat with one Fractiron, Infernape was locked in combat with a second, and he had caught four.

_Espeon, where's Dino number 7? _Aeron asked.

Espeon bolted into a tree and looked around. _Hmm. I don't see him anywhere._She closed her eyes and her gem began to glow. Aeron knew better than to bother her when she was using her psychic powers to detect life-forms. Speaking of which, Aeron closed his own eyes, and began to radiate a green glow from his body that acted as a slight breeze that lifted his hair and stirred his clothes. Then both found their target.

_Aeron, you seeing what I'm seeing? _Espeon asked, still in detection mode.

_If you're seeing Ash getting chased around by a Fractiron, then yep. That's what I'm seeing._ Aeron replied.

* * *

"AHHHHHHH!!!!!"

Ash and Pikachu were running from the seventh Fractiron. The cheeky devil had burrowed underground and surprised Ash, causing the two to flee.

"Why me?!" Ash yelled as he ran past Anabel.

"Huh? Ash, why are you running?" Anabel asked, confused.

Ash suddenly stopped and grabbed Anabel and yanked her out of the way of the rampaging Fractiron.

"That a decent answer?" Ash asked, panting.

Fractiron screeched to a halt and turned, and did that thing that beasts do when they're about to sprint. Then came the actual sprint.

"Fractiron! Stop!" Anabel shouted, tapping into her empathic powers.

Fractiron screeched to a halt. He cocked his head to the side and let out a growl.

"Why do you want to attack everything in sight? What drives you to this kind of rampage? Tell me."

Fractiron began making a large series of roars, growls, and howls. Anabel listened, not paying attention to anything else.

"Anabel...?"

"Shhh!!" Anabel hissed to Ash.

When Fractiron finished his sentence, Anabel understood. Turns out Fractirons love to fight. However, because Fractirons are extremely powerful, they quickly grow bored with their extreme strength, and soon get into an irritable state where they will attack anything they see just to find someone or something they can fight without holding back. This particular Fractiron was a pretty powerful one; he had defeated every single opponent that he had faced before the "boy in green clothes", including the three Super-Ancient Pokémon. It took her a moment to realize that Fractiron meant Aeron.

"So you just want to find a worthy opponent?" Fractiron nodded.

Ash drew out a Pokéball. "I think I could satisfy you."

Fractiron coolly directed his gaze at Ash.

"You see, I caught a Gible a while ago, and he evolved into a Gabite recently, and he's been itching for a good fight, like you. I figure that you could at least satisfy his desire, and maybe he could satisfy his."

Fractiron pondered for a moment, then roared his approval.

"He says, 'Sure, why not? Could be interesting, and if not, I could at least have a good workout.'"

"Then it's settled," they heard. They turned to see Aeron running over.

"Metagross and Infernape just finished up their battles, and I caught their opponents. I'll make sure this doesn't get out to the general public, 'cause it could be disastrous if it did." Aeron cast his hands into the air and created an illusionary bubble that concealed everything within it.

"Okay. You're good to go."

* * *

_Herd Leader Fractiron would like to battle!_

Fractiron waited, impatiently digging his foot through the ground a couple of times.

"Go! Gabite!"

Ash's Gabite came out of his Pokéball, roaring and digging his own feet through the ground, raring to go.

Fractiron paused, and looked at Gabite curiously, evaluating his opponent. His foe was quite young, Fractiron could tell that much, but his muscles vibrated with an unusually high amount of energy. Fractiron took note of a Macho Brace on Gabite's arm.

_Blasted armband. No wonder._Fractiron thought, lowering his head for a charge.

Gabite hunched over and narrowed his eyes. Suddenly, he vanished.

Fractiron looked around in confusion. There was no way Gabite could've teleported. Then he realized something and swung his tail in an Iron Tail attack.

Gabite ducked low underneath it and slammed into Fractiron with a powerful Dragon Rush.

Unfortunately, it had half of its usual effectiveness. Fractiron's iron-hard skin protected him from a large amount of the impact.

Fractiron growled in annoyance and raised his foot to stomp on Gabite. Gabite darted out of the way and sprang up over Fractiron, blasting him with Fire Blast.

Fractiron whirled himself into a Rollout attack, causing the flame to channel itself around Fractiron due to the high speed making a huge amount of wind that unfocused the blast enough to miss the steel-type entirely.

All this happened in a matter of seconds. Ash hadn't even had time to open his mouth, and it now hung open in awe at how powerful the two combatants really were.

Aeron was impressed. "Your Gabite's pretty good, Ash. His speed's really high, almost to the point of a flash step.

"Gabite, use Sand Tomb!" Ash called.

Gabite slashed, sending sand towards Fractiron, which wrapped around him.

Fractiron roared and suddenly dug underground.

Gabite responded by stomping on the ground and creating an Earthquake, which caused Fractiron to burst out of the ground and hammer Gabite with Triple Kick, impressing everyone by the fact that he managed to get off all three kicks in midair.

"Hmm. Gabite seems to like to do things without your say-so, huh?" Aeron asked Ash.

"Yeah. Ever since he evolved, he's been using attacks that I never told him to use, or ones that I was going to order him to use but he used them before I could tell him to."

"Have you tried to correct this?" Aeron asked.

"No, not really, because every time he does that he usually wins the match. Once Gabite was backed into a corner, low on health and outnumbered ten to one, but he suddenly lashed out with a frenzy of attacks and complicated maneuvers that I never would've thought of telling him to use, and easily defeated his opponents, all of which were pretty strong.

"Is that a Macho Brace he's wearing?" Aeron asked.

"Yeah. He's been wearing that for a while. I never asked him to wear it, but he put it on and never took it off."

Aeron narrowed his eyes. "You noticed how fast he was going, right?"

Ash nodded. "Yeah, why?"

"How fast is his usual running speed?"

"He can cover from here," Ash gestured to where they were standing, "to there," he pointed at a tree about forty feet away, "in about a second."

Aeron frowned. _That was nowhere near as fast as what he was doing just now,_ Aeron thought. _Even if Gabite removed that Macho Brace, he shouldn't be able to run on par with a flash step unless..._

Aeron realized something. _Now I get it!_ But he wasn't about to tell Ash, so he decided to ask Ash something.

"Do you know just how fast Gabite really is?" Aeron queried.

"What do you mean?"

"Did you know that a Macho Brace cuts the wearer's speed in half?"

Judging from Ash's surprised, he hadn't. "Well, now you know."

Aeron turned his attention back to the fight. _Hmm. Smart Gabite, that one is, _he noted as Gabite unleashed a Fire Blast, then zoomed behind Fractiron and blasted another, then finished up with Earth Power, sending all three attacks to a point where they would hit Fractiron simultaneously.

Fractiron squatted and then sprang into the air using Rollout, whirling the Fire Blast coming from above into a tornado that scorched a large number of things, excluding Fractiron. Fractiron roared and came out of Rollout to whip his tail around in Iron Tail, combining the force of his fall with the residual speed of Rollout with his overall might.

Gabite roared in pain as he got nailed across the chest by the massively overpowered attack. He slumped to the ground for a moment, then suddenly fell asleep.

"Hmm. I guess he's trying the Rest−Sleep talk combo." Aeron said thoughtfully.

"He knows Sleep talk?" Ash asked.

"Looks like it. Yeah, look, he's getting up."

Gabite's eyes were closed, but sure enough, he was rising. He opened his mouth and unleashed a stream of flames.

"How many moves did you teach him?" Aeron queried. "Most of the moves that he's used so far can only be learned by TM or Move Tutor!"

"I'm not sure. I never used a TM on him once, but he seems to be learning these moves on his own, without any help."

Aeron frowned. This was what he was afraid of. When a Gabite learns moves on its own without assistance from TMs or Move Tutors, it means that the Gabite is reaching its full potential. What that meant was that there was another evolution of Gabite. A much more powerful one.

Fractiron suddenly surprised them with a Metal Claw, slashing Gabite broadside with the claws on his feet.

Gabite roared in pain and woke up. His eyes narrowed and he sucked in a breath, gathering bright blue fire in his mouth. All his protruding spikes and claws began glowing with inner power.

"Huh? What's that?" Ash asked.

"Rayquaza already showed it to you. It's called Dragon Fire. It's a Fire-type move, but only Dragon Pokémon can learn it. It's much stronger than any normal fire; it power level is one hundred and fifty, up there with Blast Burn. Its power is balanced out by the fact that the move can't be used too much, because it takes a lot of energy, reducing speed and offensive power by one level."

"So, how did he learn it?" Ash wondered.

"I don't know, but he's about ready to evolve." Aeron replied. "Yeah, see? Look at all that."

Some of the Dragon Fire was cascading behind Gabite, pouring out of his back as if he was a Typhlosion.

"His body can't handle his strength. That's about the time that he would turn into something greater than most other Pokémon. The moment he completes that attack, he'll evolve!"

Gabite roared, a sound that reverberated all across Kanto, and unleashed the fire in his mouth as a raging inferno that tore through the air and completely overwhelmed Fractiron with its sheer strength. Fractiron fell, defeated.

Gabite looked at his foe and roared in triumph. Then, his form glowed white, and he began shifting shape. His size increased to a towering eight foot high gargantuan with webbed wings and a head similar to a Garchomp's except it was sleeker and more aerodynamic. His eyes blinked at them, containing equal amounts of wisdom and majesty. The front of his torso was red, and it had strange golden patterns across it. His spine was lined with aerodynamic spikes, and parallel to his spines were a pair of golden streaks.

Aeron heard in his head, _…with a level of power unmatched by virtually all other Pokémon, this Pokémon stands in a class all by itself._

Aeron turned around to face the others. "Guys, I'd like to introduce to you the only pseudo-deity class Pokémon currently known to exist." He gestured to Ash's newly evolved Pokémon. "Garcrunch."

Ash was awed. "What kind of conditions does it take for a Gabite to reach Garcrunch?"

"You really want to know?" Ash nodded. "Well, to get a Gabite to evolve to such a high level, it has to acquire a certain stat total by the time it gets to its evolution point."

"Which is...?" Anabel asked, hating how Aeron liked to withhold information until asked.

"At least 700." was her answer.

Ash and Anabel's mouths dropped open.

* * *

"Mommy?"

"Hmm?" Winona asked.

"What's "stat total"?" Aerín asked.

"Stat total is the sum total of all the stat levels put together."

"You mean Attack, Defense, Speed, Special Attack, Special Defense, and HP, right?" Aerín asked.

"Quite right, Aerín." Wallace said.

"What's so good about a stat total of 700?" Aerín asked.

"700 is more powerful than Rayquaza, Dialga, Palkia, Giratina, Mewtwo, Lugia, and Ho-oh, not to mention pretty close to Arceus." Anabel informed her.

Aerín's mouth hung open in a manner similar to how Ash and Anabel's mouths hung open when Aeron had told them how powerful Garcrunch was. Anabel stifled a laugh; she now knew that Aeron had tried hard to keep from laughing at them during that time.

"Can we keep going?" Ash asked.

"Sure. I'll make lunch, since I don't come into the story until a while later." Wallace said, getting up. "Meanwhile, I suggest you tell about the _other_ secret Pokémon you got that day."

"Wow! Another one?" Aerín asked. "Who was it?"

"None other than that Fractiron," Ash said. "He was pretty strong, and he recognized me as a worthy trainer, I guess."

"Also, Ash needed a steel type." Anabel put in. "It was the only type that he had never owned anything from."

"Really? Ash, is that true?"

Ash nodded ruefully. "Somehow I managed to let every single steel type that came my way get away. I was finally able to get a hold of a really strong one that day."

"So, how did that play out?" Aerín asked, snuggling back into Winona's lap.

"Here's how..."

* * *

Ash looked at a hurt Fractiron. "Hey, you okay?"

Fractiron roared in response, and struggled to his feet. Impressively, he actually got back up, even with all those injuries.

"He says he's fine," Anabel said.

_Well isn't that fine and dandy?_Espeon asked, perching gently on Aeron's shoulder.

Ash looked at Fractiron. "Hey, you wanna come with me?"

Fractiron looked at him quizzically.

"You see, I'd like to have you on my team, and with my luck you'll get into the worst possible scenarios ever."

Fractiron brightened at the last bit, and then roared.

"He says that if your luck is that bad, it would be really interesting to hang around you, and maybe he could get you out of whatever mess you get yourself into." Anabel informed him.

Ash tried to hide his irritation at the last comment. "Well then, can I...?" He held up a Pokéball.

Fractiron looked at it, then bowed, sinking to one knee.

"That's an affirmative." Aeron said. "Fractirons always bow like that when they submit."

Ash tapped the Pokéball against Fractiron's head. Fractiron went in, and the Pokéball locked.

"Alright! I got a Fractiron!" Ash crowed.

"Pika-pika!" Pikachu added cheerfully.

Aeron nodded. "Well done, Ash." He looked up at Garcrunch. "Congratulations, Garcrunch. You're now one of the most powerful Pokémon in the world."

Garcrunch roared, and then spread his wings and flapped. He began rising high into the air, going higher and higher until he was soaring among the clouds.

"Hmm. He's learned how to Fly." Aeron noted. "He's quite a specimen, even for a Garcrunch."

Ash looked up. "I guess my world is never going to be the same now."

Aeron shrugged. "Who said that your life was going to be easy?"

Ash shrugged in response.

Aeron looked around. "Guys, I think we better scat."

"Huh? Why?" Anabel asked.

Aeron pointed. News trucks had showed up.

"At this rate we're going to be discovered by Cipher. They like to hack into news networks." he explained when the others gave him inquiring looks.

"Garcrunch!" Ash called.

Garcrunch came down and landed lightly.

"Can you take us to another part of the Viridian forest?" Ash asked.

Garcrunch simply offered them his back. Ash and Anabel leapt on.

"I'll follow you from the ground," Aeron told them. "That way, Garcrunch won't have to endure the weight of three."

Garcrunch grunted.

Aeron looked at him and said, "Yes, I know you might be able to handle it, but this isn't about questioning your strength. It's about getting used to your new form. I might ride you when you're quite settled."

Garcrunch shrugged and took off. Aeron watched him as he flew off.

"Well, well. Ash Ketchum attracts remarkable Pokémon," Aeron remarked.

_Well, he __**is **__one of the most unusual trainers in the world,_Espeon pointed out.

_Point taken_. Aeron thought to her.

_You always say that, but you never get it._Espeon grumbled.

_Do not!_

_Do to!_

_Do not!_

_Do to!_

The two argued playfully as Aeron raced to catch up to Garcrunch.


	7. A Dream Re, well, not really, union

Aerín yawned loudly. It was way past her bedtime.

"Alright. That's enough for tonight." Wallace said, effectively ending the storytelling.

"But daddy, I want to hear more!" Aerín begged.

"And you will, dear. But you have to go to bed. You're dead tired.

"No I'm not…" Aerín's eyes closed and she fell against her mother. Winona smiled and wrapped an arm around her daughter.

"She looks so different when she's asleep," she murmured, ruffling Aerín's hair in a motherly sort of way.

Ash looked out into the night. "This is just the sort of night Axel makes when he's around. I wonder if he's nearby."

"You might say that," a voice eerily echoed out from directly behind Anabel.

Anabel freaked out. In all her life, no matter who did it, or how many times they did it, she had never gotten used to people sneaking up on her. Especially when she couldn't sense them.

They heard laughter as Axel Nightblazer melted out of the shadows, grinning from ear to ear. "Boy, Anabel. I didn't think that scaring you'd wake up the dead! For that matter, our niece!"

Aerín had been sleeping quite soundly until Anabel screamed. She bolted awake, her hands flashing up to her ears and wincing.

"Aunty, c'mon!" Aerín complained. "My hearing's too sensitive!"

Anabel leaned against a wall, waiting for her heart to stop racing.

"So, I guess you revealed it to her, huh?" Axel asked, his facing growing serious all of a sudden.

"Yeah. We had to. Winona let slip Aeron's name, and she was rather curious. Besides, she's old enough to know." Wallace said, throwing Winona a smug look as he said her name.

"Well, excuse me Mr. Champion!" Winona replied hot-headedly, swatting Wallace on the back of the head.

"Ow!" Wallace yelped. "Okay, okay, I get it!"

"Goooood. I'm glaaaad we understand each other." Winona said in a voice that sent shivers down Wallace's spine. For that matter, everyone who was present. No details will be given, so as to let the readers imagine what it's like. However, to help it a little, think of your mother and picture her being really, really angry at something you did, and talking in a deathly quiet voice that seems to chill the air around you and anything scary you can think of. Yeah, that kind of spine-chilling.

"You know, sometimes you can be as scary as Aerín, Winona." Axel commented.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Aerín asked, annoyed.

"Nothing, nothing. It's just that's it's a beautiful night with a full moon and thousands of stars." Axel said, quickly changing the subject.

Annoyed, Aerín swatted Axel on the back of the head like Winona swatted Wallace. Except, since she was a little girl, she didn't really think too much about what she did, so she hit a _bit_ harder than she intended to.

"OW!!" Axel yelled, clutching the back of his head. "Aerín! Be careful!"

"You're one to talk!" Aerín retorted. "You always _ask_ to get placed into the worst mess ever!"

Axel opened his mouth to say a witty retort, but found that he had none.

_Well, well, Axel. Owned by a six year old girl. You should be ashamed_. Axel heard Aeron's voice echo through his head. Axel opened his mouth to retort, but closed his mouth. This sort of thing happened a lot. For some reason, Aeron always seemed to by just over their shoulders, and would sometimes throw at them a snippy remark out of nowhere. It was one of the most painful things that his absence had on them. They knew _exactly_ what he would have said in a certain situation, and they would turn to throw a retort at him… and find no one standing there.

Axel sighed and slid his headphones over his ears. He turned up the music a little and then turned back to the others. "So. Ash. Anabel. Why are you two here?"

"Y' know, visits, vacations, that sort of thing." Ash said.

"Ah." Axel nodded thoughtfully. He looked out into the night sky as an Umbreon called out to its mate somewhere in the distance. "So you're going to be staying here for the night?" Both nodded. "Winona, do you mind hosting a third guest?" Winona shook her head. "It all works out then."

Axel got to his feet and looked outside. "It's late. We should go to sleep. We can continue telling Aerín about it in themorning."

"But I'm not tired!" Aerín protested. "See? I can stay awaaaa…zzzzzzz…"

For the second time that night, Aerín fell asleep in the middle of her sentence.

Axel chuckled. "She's so energetic, but she falls asleep real fast," he commented, gently lifting the little six year old girl and carried her upstairs to her room.

Axel placed Aerín in her bed, then looked at the room itself. He exited and quietly closed the door. He flash-stepped to the bottom of the stairs and then went to the others. "She's in bed."

Wallace got up. "Axel, you can sleep in this room. The couch is good enough, right?"

"It'll be fine." Axel confirmed, sitting down in the spot Wallace had just occupied. "I'll be up most of the night, though, just because…" he motioned to the night sky.

No one needed an explanation. Axel's spiritual powers were based on the nighttime sky, and as they were totally unrivaled, he was pretty much the ruler of nighttime. He had immense control over shadow power, but he was a good guy. No doubt about it. He really only used shadow power to spook people, or to perform stealthy operations. He rarely used shadow power to attack, and whenever he did, it was only when necessary.

Axel waved his hand, and he changed a bit. To the other four, his spiritual pressure took on a pleasant feeling. Instead of an iron grip, it was now a comforting hand. Axel sometimes did this sort of thing when he was intent on making sure people slept well. He and other people similar to him were able to change their internal abilities at will. You can guess which ability he took on.

"Sweet dreams, guys." Axel lay back and relaxed, his sapphire blue eyes reflecting the moon.

Winona, Wallace, Ash, and Anabel bid each other good night and went to bed.

* * *

Aerín…

_Aerín was in a world full of clouds that obscured everything that there was to see. She looked around, searching for the origin of that voice._

Over here,_ Aerín heard, and turned around._

_Where? She wondered._

Right here._ Came her answer, and a bunch of the clouds blew away to reveal a tall young man with black hair and emerald green robes. Scattered through his eyes of emerald were golden specks that radiated warmth and undeniable power._

Who are you?_ Aerín asked._

I believe that you know the answer to that question, young one._ The figure replied._

_Aerín studied the figure. His hair was a bit shorter and messier, and his clothes were different, but other than that, he looked exactly like Uncle Axel._

Uncle Aeron? _Aerín guessed. The figure smiled and nodded._

What is this place?_ Aerín asked._

This is a world of dreams, _Aeron replied, looking around._ I may be real in one world, and I may have perished in another, but in this world, anything can exist. _He came close and sat down, looking off into the distance. Aerín imitated him, sitting beside him._

_They remained silent for a few moments. Then Aerín asked, _How did you vanish?

I'd rather not talk about it. _Aeron answered._ I'd rather that you learned these facts from your parents, Axel, Anabel, and Ash. They are telling you about our tale, I presume, and telling you such facts would only spoil the surprise.

_Aerín considered this. Then she asked,_ Were you really a prankster?

Oh, yes. I played many pranks._Aeron smirked a little as he said this. _I once used hair gel to make your aunt Anabel's hair spike up. It was one of the most bizarre, not to mention hilarious, sights I had ever seen. She was quite surprised when she woke up.

_Aerín laughed and tried to picture it, and decided that she would try it sometime. _What about the photo?

The one on your living room wall? _Aerín nodded._ Axel and I made a plan to snap a photo of them when they didn't expect it. We were hiking along a trail that day, and I told them to turn around. They did, and to their bewilderment Axel snapped the photo. I had a good laugh out of that one, but I paid dearly for it. _He shivered and winced._ Your mother's signature one-hit KO super-slap was used that day.

One-hit KO? _Aerín asked._

Mm-hm. One-hit KO. _Aeron confirmed. _Trust me, it's not something you want to feel, not that she would give it to you for breakfast.

_Aerín laughed softly, getting the joke. (You know, getting a "taste" of it.) The two remained silent for a bit._

You know, _Aerín said, causing Aeron to turn to her. _I sort of wanted to meet you, ever since I learned about you.

Since this morning, you mean? _Aeron asked, earning him a nod from Aerín. _Well, that's natural. I hear about someone important to someone I know, I always want to meet that person just to see what he/she is like. You and I, we're very alike. Although, _he added, his face darkening just a little, looking a bit wistful, _You've had a lot that I haven't ever had.

Like what?_ Aerín asked._

For one, people to look up to. _Aeron glanced at Aerín's confused face and chuckled._ In time, you will understand. Just keep listening to my story.

_They stayed silent for a bit. Then Aerín got up. _I've got to go, _she said, _It's almost time for me to wake.

Then go, _Aeron said. _You have much still to learn.

_Aerín gave her uncle a hug, and then jumped up, walking towards the rift between the clouds that just opened up. Before she left, Aerín_ turned around and _asked, _Uncle?Are you real, or is this just inside my head?

_Aeron smiled._ This is almost definitely in your head, Aerín, but why shouldn't it be real?

* * *

Axel watched the rising sun, reminiscing about his twin brother.

Axel had met Aeron and had discovered his connection to him about twelve years after their birth. Aeron had always known, of course, being the nerd he was, but Axel hadn't known because Aeron had parted ways with him the same day they had been born.

Axel had been raised by a noble in the floating city of Laputa, and had proved himself to be a powerful warrior, but even as he went through life he could tell that he was different from all of his comrades. He had no idea what that difference was, of course, but it was always there. While most Laputian warriors had Zanpakuto embodying the air element, Axel had discovered his abilities to be about nighttime. The discovery enabled him to use his abilities to their heights, including his power over shadows, which he wasn't too fond of but used on occasion.

Then came the day when Axel met his twin brother. A terrible day, one that Axel hated reviewing, as the only good thing had been the discovery of another almost like him...

* * *

**Hoenn Region, 46 years after the dawn of time:**

Axel flash-stepped next to a man with green robes. "Evening, Typhon."

The man saw him and bowed. "Captain Nightblazer, sir!"

"Don't be so formal. Everything quiet around here?"

"Yes, sir. I haven't seen any Laruinan forces around."

"Good. Be on your guard, though; earth elementals are always sneaky."

"Yes, sir!"

Axel flash-stepped away and reappeared before the general of the Laputian army. "General Torun," he said, bowing.

"Rise, Captain Nightblazer." the general said. "What was the news from our scouts?"

"None of the enemy have been seen yet, although a couple said there was a strange rustling in the brush equivalent to wind blowing through them, except that there's no wind."

"Hmm. That's odd." The general mused. "Well, keep up the good- wait, what was that?"

Axel had heard it too. A brief but alarmingly loud rumble had resounded across the landscape.

"Axel, be on your guard. This smells like a Laruinan trap." Torun said.

Axel sniffed. "I don't smell anything, sir."

Torun groaned. "Not literally smell, it's figurative!" Then he noticed that Axel was smirking and sighed. "Axel, this is no time for jo-!"

He never finished his sentence. At that moment, a column of earth suddenly rose up and engulfed him, giving him no chance to react.

"General!" Axel shouted. Then he whirled away as another large collumn jumped out of the ground to try and swallow him up as well.

Axel dodged several attempts at taking him out, then he pulled up his Zanpakuto. "Bankai!"

Axel's light blue spiritual pressure flared out of him, engulfing him . When the energy cleared up, Axel stood with his spiritual pressure was shaped into a pair of wings on his back. Axel's held two daito, connected with a long silver chain. Axel's robe turned into an armored long-sleeve coat that extended all the way to his ankles. The The armor was decorated with silver patterns

"Doki no Shiruba-Getsu!" Axel shouted, taking off high into the air. All attempts to take him out were in vain; Axel's already high speed was further increased by the release of his Bankai

Axel heard the screams of his comrades being quickly taken out. Axel narrowed his eyes and quickly located as many enemies as he could, and raised his sword, pointing downwards.

"Getsu Taiho!" Axel shouted, focusing his power in the tip of the blade and channeling it in the form of of a thousand sphere's of energy, each one zooming for a different target. The radius of the blast zone was nearly three ri, a very large amount of area..

Axel grimaced as many of his enemies screamed in pain as the attacks struck them. He knew they were his enemies, but it didn't get any easier to endure their screams.

Axel turned as a man in black robes flash-stepped in front of him.

Axel pointed his blade at him. "Throw down your weapon or be destroyed."

The man in black laughed. "Who's going to kill me? You?"

Axel exerted a fraction of his spiritual pressure. He had been keeping his power in check to this point. Then man's eyes widened when he realized just how strong Axel was.

Axel said to him, "Make up your mind. I don't have all day."

As he spoke, Axel was gathering his shadow power into his blade, turning it black. The man noticed this, and was going to run away, but Axel pointed his blade at his head and said, "Dark Void."

A sphere of black energy outlined with a crimson nimbus accelerated towards the man, striking him and instanty rendering hm unconscious.

Axel pointed at him as he fell. Many threads of moonlight wrapped aroubnd the man's limbs, slowing his fall and lowering him gently to the ground.

Axel blew out a sigh of relief. He could kill if necessary, but he prefered to avoid it if he could. Then he flapped his wings a couple of times and then soared off into the bulk of the fight.

When he got there it was clear to see that the Laputian army was at a disadvantage. They were fighting nonstop, and were taking out a foe every few moments. However, their enemies were numerous and attaacked without end. As Axel watched, the Laruinan army poured out of the ground and in endless waves, slowly forcing his comrades backward. That had to change.

Axel gathered his energy in his blades, which began resonating with his light blue spiritual pressure. "Getsuga Tensho!! (Moon-fang Piercer of the heavens)" He shouted, slicing downwards. Twin crescent-shaped waves of light blue energy roared out of his blades and sliced towards a huge cluster of soldiers.

The soldiers looked up barely in time to see the attack coming. They got nailed by Axel's onslaught, smashed into unconsciousness. Their comrades simply took to the air to attack the one who had taken them down.

Axel looked at them and crossed his arms, pointing his index fingers to the same spot. That area was soon occupied by a sphere of blue-white energy, growing bigger every second and emitting intense light.

"Getsu Taiho!!! (Moon Cannon!!)" Axel shouted, unleashing the blast in a massive sphere of his spiritual pressure. The sphere roared at ultra-high speed towards his foes, engulfing them and defeating them without much effort. The effect was sort of like Yusuke Urameshi's reigun from Yuyu Hakusho.

Axel swept his blades in a circle, each one trailing his spiritual pressure, forming a ring of light. Axel held his hand in the middle of it, and it began to spin. Faster and faster it spun, and Axel whipped it up as a soldier came up with a Rock Golem on his side.

"Enjin Getsuga Tensho!!! (Ring Moon-fang piercer of the Heavens)" Axel shouted, hurling the ring of energy, sending it towards the Rock Golem. It was sliced in two, and it crumbled back into the rock it came from.

The man kept going, raising his blade to strike at Axel. Axel casually whipped one blade up, then used the other to smash his foe's own sword out of his hand. The man saw his sword spin out of his hand, and failed to see Axel's foot come up in a kick that connected with, erm, an extremely painful place to get hit in.

Axel winced on the man's behalf as he went plummeting to the ground, foaming at the mouth from the pain. He hadn't actually meant to kick him in the fork of the legs, but it had come out that way. Ah, well, let bygones be bygones. (Easy for him to say, he wasn't the one who got nailed down there!)

Axel turned back to the main battle to see a large amount of soldiers take to the air to combat him. Axel dodged between two slashes, matrix-style dodged another, turned the dodge into a backwards somersault to avoid three more, and then came up slashing, sending a moon-fang rocketing towards his foes, smashing them away.

Axel twirled his blades and rocketed onto the ground, making a little impact crater when he landed. He got up to see that nearly all the soldiers had turned in his direction, and his appearance had made two different reactions: one, the enemy groaned, because his face was quite well known to them. Two, his comrades cheered, because they knew that they had a better chance at winning now.

Axel waved his hand, and a shadow arced up and knocked a hundred swords out of their owners' hands. Axel himself rocketed forward, whirling and slashing like a tornado. Many of his enemies fell before his onslaught, but the wounds they recieved were only enough to put them out of action for a while, not kill.

Axel jumped and clenched his fist. He gathered energy like he was going to use Getsu Taiho, but this time the entire fist glowed instead of just the finger.

Axel pulled back his fist. "Getsu Taiho!!" he shouted, punching forward and unleashing the energy in the form of a wave of a thousand blasts, all fired at the same time.

Axel's foes ran for it. Who wouldn't? You'd run too if you had to compete with Axel's crushing power.

Axel threw one of his swords into the air and grabbed the chain. He began spinning the sword while holding the chain, whirling the sword faster and faster. As he did this, the sword began glowing with spiritual power, imbued with the effects of Getsuga Tensho, but contained within the blade. Axel aimed at a thick cluster of soldiers and released the chain, sending the sword hurtling off in that direction. The chain between the swords lengthened, stretching between the two so that they remained connected.

Axel waited until the sword was almost on top of the soldiers. Then he released the energy in the blade.

The result was an explosion of energy that threw the men in every direction, knocking them into unconsciousness. Axel yanked the sword back, the chain shortening as he did so, and whipped both up in time to block a blast of energy that would've gotten through if Axel had tried blocking it with only one sword.

Axel slashed the blast away with Getsuga Tensho, and quickly blasted the man who fired it at him. The man fell, joining the rest of his comrades who had been felled by Axel.

The next hour was like a blur to Axel. Axel was fighting nonstop, yet every foe he struck down was replaced by at least one more. Axel had not endured any wounds, but he was getting tired. His Bankai was easier to maintain than most, but more than an hour of nonstop fighting, with needing to fight foes with about a tenth of his energy twenty at a time, was really taking its toll on the teenager. Sooner or later, his Bankai would go down, and he would need to fight them without its benifits. It's not that he couldn't do it, it was just that he was hopelessly outnumbered, and he would be exhausted from all his energy being used up just to sustain his Bankai.

Axel's blade slipped in his hand as he attempted to block a strike from a particularily powerful soldier. He watched as his blade clattered to the ground, and his foe's blade came down, too fast for his weary limbs to keep up with...

And a teenager in green robes and an Espeon on his shoulder materialized in front of him, smashing him backwards and easily blocking the strike.

Axel felt his Bankai fade as he skidded back twenty feet, out of the thick of the fighting. He looked up at the one who saved him, who even now had his back turned to him.

"Well, well. I never thought that Laruinans would stoop this low." The teen commented, holding his blade out, obviously challenging them.

The Laruinan army hesitated, then laughed and brandished their Zanpakuto. The teen coolly maintained his stance as they came at him. Axel thought that he would stay still for so long that he would let them cut him in two!

The soldiers got to him, and one took a slice at him...

...and found that his blade passed through him harmlessly. Promptly, the teen's image faded.

"Boy, you guys are thick," they heard. They turned to see the teen standing behind them, his sword braced on his shoulder.

He coolly pointed at them. "Binding spell 75: _Gochu Tekkan_. (Five-pillar piercing iron) Go! Divine Judgement!!"

His foes laughed. "Divine judgement?! Don't make us laAAAAAAAUUUGGGGGHHHHHHHH!!!!!"

Tons of pillars of iron slammed down from the heavens, pinning them all to the ground. They felt like a judge had smashed his mallet on them, and that the judge was the size of God. (See now? _Divine Judgement?)_

"Talk about receiving the heavy end of the hammer," the teen commented, whirling his hands, which were glowing with green light. "45th of the Forbidden Spell: _Jikanteishi!!_ (Temporal stasis)"

The men were enveloped in a green light, freezing them in time. The teen then placed his hands over one another, moving them apart and revealing a golden light. "46th of the Forbidden Spell: _Kūkanten'i!!_ (Spatial Displacement)"

The trapped men were enveloped in that light too, and then were totally teleported away. The teen turned and pointed to the others. "Are you going to get out of here, or am I gonna have to beat you out of here?"

They ran for it. They were trained to deal with soldiers, not people who could mess around with space and time.

Axel and the teen watched them go. Then the teen turned to him. "I never thought that I'd run into you in this manner, brother." he commented.

Axel stared. "Hold on, did you say _brother?_"

The teen nodded. He bowed low. "My name is Aeron Solo. I had to part ways with you shortly after our birth. I am your _twin_ brother, to be precise."

Aeron helped Axel up. "Number one, you shouldn't use your Bankai on such losers when there are much more effective techniques..."

Aeron and Axel talked, argued, got into a fight, got smashed apart by Espeon, and all that stuff that brothers do as they walked into the distance.

* * *

Axel heard soft padding on the carpet and turned to see Espeon, Aeron's, padding softly into the living room. "Hey, Espeon."

_Morning, Axel. _Espeon replied. She jumped onto Axel's chest and sighed, depressed. Axel scratched her behind the ears like Aeron always did while he was still around.

"You miss him, don't you?" Axel asked, still scratching.

_Mm-hm. _Espeon confirmed, settling down. She enjoyed being scratched behind the ears, but she had sunken so low in mood that she couldn't really be called happy anymore.

Axel sighed. He thought about what the psychic-type was like six years ago, when Espeon had been so different. She had been totally opposite of her current state, seeming young and happy. Happy because of the (not-so) young man who had stood by her side all day and night.

Axel probed the long-dead connection between him and his brother like he always did, just to see if he was alive and just lost to them. But whenever he did this, all he got was silence. Axel sighed and got up about to go prepare some breakfast for himself and Espeon when he suddenly felt an echo across that connection. His surprise was so great that he tripped and planted his face in the floorboards.

Espeon had also felt the echo, and looked up, hope shining in her eyes. An echo was almost nothing compared to the crystal-clear connection they once had to Aeron, but by all rights there should've been absolutely nothing coming from that link. It wasn't much, but it was enough for them to continue hoping.

Axel groaned as he picked himself up from the floor. He looked at the dent in the floor that was shaped like his face. _Now how am I going to explain this?_

_You leave that to me. _Espeon jumped off the couch and closed her eyes, and she began to glow with blue energy. The dent also began to glow, and then it inflated, removing all traces that anyone had ever smashed their face into it.

"Phew!" _Thanks, Espeon. Your psychic powers sure are handy in times like this._ Axel said, preparing to make breakfast.

See, Espeon had special control over her psychic powers. Her focus was fine enough that she could grasp microscopic objects and energy itself to create powerful attacks that she couldn't learn otherwise. This allowed her access to most fire-type moves, most water-type moves, ground-type moves, rock-type moves, electric-type moves, ghost-type moves (for reishi particles were subject to her influence as well), grass-type moves (by subjecting plant life to her will), ice type moves (although she had to use fire-type moves right after to get rid of the heat she drained out of the water), and more. That was why she used Blast Burn earlier, and the best thing was that moves that she used her psychic power to create never failed to hit their target, and they required no (re)charging time. So she could use Solarbeam, Blast Burn, Frenzy Plant, Hydro Cannon, and moves like those with impunity.

As Axel cooked, he heard a loud bouncing as Aerín bounded down the stairs. He casually pointed in her direction and said, "Binding Spell 61: _Rikujokoro!_"

Six bars of light slammed into Aerín's midsection, causing her to freeze in midair and tumble all the way to the bottom. Axel pointed again and said, "Binding Spell 37: _Tsuriboshi!!_"

A star-shaped net of spirit energy formed and anchored itself to the walls. It caught Aerín on the last bounce, keeping her from hitting the floor.

Axel snapped his fingers and both spells dissipated. Aerín let out a yelp of surprise as she dropped the last foot, landing with a thud on the carpet.

"Good morning, Aerín. How was your night?" Axel asked casually. Aerín came up to him just as casually and gave him her brightest smile. She maintained it long enough for Axel to feel cold sweat form on the back of his neck. _Oh, crap,_ he thought. He had once learned the hard way that Aeron had two kinds of happy.

One: he is your regular definition of happy and seems normal.

Two: he seems almost _too_ happy. Usually, if he is this kind of happy, someone else is about to be very, very sad. Axel was vaguely reminded of this by Aerín's current expression.

"Um...Aerín? I'm sor-"

He never got to finish his sentence. With an ear-splitting _crack_, Aerín slapped him _hard_ across the face.

_It's a one-hit KO!!_

Axel fell, out cold from the pain. Aerín threw a brick on his, erm, _nuts_ and cheerfully finished cooking the breakfast that Axel had been making.

Espeon went over and nudged Axel, who was foaming at the mouth. _Axel? Are you alright?_

Axel's eyes slowly opened. Espeon could see the imprint of a small hand on his face. "...no, Espeon, not at all..." his eyes slowly went closed as Axel's mind shut itself down for repairs.

Espeon sighed. Axel was definitely _not_ Aeron, but he could act just as stupidly as his brother. Not that they were stupid, it's just that they could act really stupid. Oh, well. Sucked for him.

Espeon got up as Aerín called her over to eat. They day was young, and there was much to be done.


	8. A Monument to the Past

Wallace opened his eyes to the morning sun. He blinked a couple of times, then turned his head to see Winona lying beside him, still soundly asleep.

Wallace smiled and rose, going to the mirror first on account of what Aerín had done to him the previous morning. Seeing nothing wrong, he changed and went downstairs.

Upon getting down, he saw Aerín in the dining room, eating breakfast. He saw Espeon beside her, lapping up milk from a saucer...and Axel lying on the ground, foaming at the mouth and the whites of his eyes showing, not to mention having a red mark on his face shaped rather suspiciously like Aerín's right hand.

Wallace winced briefly and went over, looking down at Axel. "Aerín? What happened here? Why did you slap your uncle?"

"It's not nice to bind someone when they're in the middle of going down the stairs." Aerín replied, chugging a whole cup of milk in a single gulp and slamming it down on the table, giving a contented sigh. "Finished!" she called, pushing back her chair and jumping down, walking over to the stairs and vanishing in a blur.

Wallace gave a weary sigh, feeling very tired despite being well rested. Aerín was a very troublesome child to raise. She grasped complicated Soul Reaper techniques by instinct, yet she still insisted on being even less mature than Aeron.

Wallace looked down at Axel. "Are you okay, Axel?"

Axel groaned and his irises reappeared. "No, not really," he replied in a hoarse voice that betrayed how much pain he was in. He sat up, causing a brick that was, erm, _down there_ to clatter to the ground.

Wallace winced on Axel's behalf and helped the young, or rather _appeared to be_ young man to his feet.

Axel wiped the foam off of his mouth and cleaned up that which was left on the ground. "Well, can't really blame her. I mean, I'd do that too if someone did that to me, or at least something like that."

"For a being who has lived since the beginning of time, you're not very wise, are you?" Wallace asked, raising an eyebrow.

Axel shrugged. "Hey, it's who I am. Deal with it."

Wallace merely grunted and began flipping pancakes. He heard someone coming down the stairs and turned his head, seeing Winona.

Winona tossed her hair back and blew a stray strand away from her face. "Morning, boys."

Axel acknowledged her greeting with a nod, rubbing at the place that Aerín's hand had connected with.

Winona noticed this and tutted. "Provoked her again, did you?"

"I can't help it. It's who I am!" Axel said, raising his hands, not wanting to receive a second round of Winona's trademark.

Winona chuckled, realizing what he was worried about. "Don't worry, Axel. I won't hit you."

_Unless you provoke her, that is,_ Espeon added, licking up the excess milk on her whiskers. She arched her back and shook herself, yawning, and vanished in a blur. She reappeared at the bottom of the stairs and trotted to the top.

Winona glanced at Espeon as she did so. Then she looked quizzically at Axel. "What's with her? She seems to have gotten over her depression."

Axel coughed into his hand and poured himself a glass of orange juice. After he drank a mouthful, he set down the cup. "This morning, you know our link to Aeron?" Wallace and Winona nodded simultaneously. "Well, as I was probing that link out of habit, we both felt a strong echo from his end."

Winona was incredulous. "Isn't it supposed to be silent? I mean, he's dead, right?"

Axel nodded. "That's what we thought. Normally when a person dies, the link to that person will come up as silence. By all rights, the link should not have transmitted an echo back. Yet here it is. It's nothing compared to the crystal clarity we normally feel, but it's something to hope for."

"Something for all of us to hope for." Wallace said, putting an arm around Winona. She smiled at him briefly, then flipped the pancakes he had been cooking into plates.

The three sat down and began to have breakfast.

Espeon nudged open the door to the room Anabel and Ash were staying in. She moved in and leapt onto the desk, pausing to look at the young couple, lying side by side in the bed.

She giggled softly, then turned to see her daughter and Pikachu sleeping snuggled up against one another. She went over and nuzzled the young one.

Anabel's Espeon, named Solana, yawned and blinked her eyes open, stretching out and slipping away from Pikachu. _Morning, mom._

Espeon smiled. _Morning, little one,_ she hummed in response.

Espeon nuzzled her daughter lovingly for a moment, then turned to the two humans sleeping on the bed. _They always sleep in?_

The younger Espeon nodded ruefully. _Always. No matter where it is, no matter what day it is, if there's a chance to keep sleeping then they'll take it._

Solana ruffled her fur briefly, then got ready to get off the desk.

_Solana, where are you going?_

_To correct it_, the younger Espeon replied.

She bounded off the desk and out the door. Espeon followed. _Solana, what are you going to do?_

Solana simply threw her a smug smile and leapt to the bottom of the stairs, moving to the kitchen. Moments later, she came to the bottom of the stairs, a bucket of icy water hovering above her.

Espeon sighed. _You gotta be kidding._

Solana merely smirked and floated it to the top. Espeon sighed again and stopped it when it reached her.

_Why a bucket of icy water?_ Espeon asked.

_I wanted to try something new, _Solana replied.

_But a bucket of icy water? Solana, that's just cold._

_Yes, cold as ice I know._ Solana laughed as her mother keeled over in exasperation.

_Aeron-type immaturity!_ Espeon grumbled as Solana moved past her.

As the little one went in, Espeon shook her head and sighed. _Young ones will be young ones, I suppose,_ she muttered to herself.

Pikachu woke up, immediately noticing Solana's absence. "Pi?"

The door nudged open and Solana came in...with a bucket of water.

Pikachu cocked his head to the side. "Pi-ka?" _What's that for?_

Solana threw him a cheeky smile. _Wake-up time!_

She tossed her head, sending the bucket's contents all over Ash and Anabel.

Solana dove under a pillow, Espeon and Pikachu covered their ears, and the two watched as Ash and Anabel yelled/screamed (respectively) in extreme surprise.

* * *

**Downstairs…**

"AAAAAAHHHHHHHH!!!!!"

All three jumped, not expecting the yell.

"What was that?" Wallace asked.

"No idea, but I think I saw Solana go into the kitchen and come out with a bucket." Axel jumped to his feet as he said this.

Wallace sighed and followed him. They opened the door to the guest room to see the currently youngest human occupants of the house soaking wet.

"What in-?" Wallace asked, bewildered beyond imagination. Axel gritted his teeth and sucked in a breath.

Pikachu and Espeon, who had just uncovered their ears, observed this and wisely decided to put their hands back over their ears.

"_SOLANA!!!!!!!!!_" Axel hollered, blasting everything within a hearing range with the unbridled power of his voice. Which was pretty much the whole world.

* * *

**Kadic Academy:**

"_SOLANA!!!!!!!!!_"

Jeremy Belpois and the Lyoko warriors were chatting in the courtyard when suddenly a wave of sonic power smashed the aside, sending Jeremy flying for twenty feet and landing ungraciously on his rump.

"Yo, Einstein, what happened?" a voice asked from his "watch". (Actually, it was an APW)

"I think you have a relative," Jeremy groaned.

"Really." It was not a question. It was a skeptical and sarcastic statement.

"Let me explain..."

* * *

**Back at the Leikalwa residence...**

Wallace was bowled over by the blast, and Winona was coming up the stairs when it hit, knocking her back down to the bottom of the stairs, slamming down rear-end first.

When everyone's ears had finally stopped ringing, Winona calmly went up the stairs and confronted Axel, locking him in place with an icy glare.

Axel felt a bit nervous. "Um, Winona? I'm sorry about tha-!"

_KA-RACK!!!!_

Winona's right hand connected with Axel's left cheek. At a speed of about mach 7.

_It's a one-hit KO!!!  
_What's with these captions?

Wallace looked down at Axel, who was lying on the floor, twitching from the pain. "Eh, Winona, aren't you overdoing it a little?"

Winona dusted her hands off. "No. He deserved that, and he paid for it.

Wallace shivered. "If you'd do that to your friend, I'd hate to see what you do to an enemy."

"Want to find out?" Winona asked, throwing a sly smile that was full of ice.

"Ulp!!" Wallace gulped. "I think I'll pass on that one!!"

"_Good._" Winona said. She looked at Ash and Anabel. "What happened here?"

Ash hopped out of the bed. "To be honest, I have no idea."

"Well, let bygones be bygones, I suppose," Wallace said, holding up his hand and sucking all the excess water out of the soaked mattress and into a sphere that hovered above his hand.

Ash noted this action. "Using your powers?"

Wallace nodded. "What tipped you off?" he asked, walking out the door to pour the water into the garden outside.

Ash shrugged, following him. "Just the fact that your zanpakuto is a water-ice elemental."

Aerín was listening, and her ears honed in on this fact. _Dad has a Zanpakuto?_

"Oh, that's right. You saw Kai-ryu Shukun (Sea dragon lord) in action in that last fight."

"Yeah. How did you achieve Bankai, though?"

Aerín was even more curious now. _Dad has Bankai?_

"I had some help from Kisuke Urahara. Winona and I needed to reach our Bankais, and he helped us reach that goal."

Aerín was now busting over with curiosity. Not only Wallace, but Winona had a zanpakuto too!

"Aerín, are you eavesdropping?" Aerín suddenly heard.

_Ulp!_ Aerín fled, flash-stepping out the window.

"Aerín, where are-?" Wallace came into her room, and paused when he saw the open window.

"Blast it!" he muttered. "She always gets away with whatever godforsaken prank she plans on playing!"

He sighed and got back to the others. By then, Ash and Anabel had finished changing, and Espeon had finished reproaching Solana (who wasn't really listening).

Winona looked at him, raising an eyebrow. "Well?"

Wallace shrugged. "She got away."

Winona sighed. "Like Aeron. He always got away with his pranks, except for a few in which I managed to…" her voice trailed off.

"Managed to take vengeance on him from." Wallace concluded. Winona nodded ruefully.

Wallace sighed and sat down, thinking. Then, "How about we show Aerín _that_ spot?"

Winona raised an eyebrow. "_That?_"

"You know, _that _spot."

Winona thought about it for a moment. Then she finally caught on, in a sort of_ "oh, right"_ kind of way. "_Oh,_ right. _That_ spot."

"Aeron's final victory." Anabel said. Both of them nodded.

Suddenly, the window opened. Aerín sprang through. "Hi, mom, dad, aunty, Ash…" she saw Axel on the floor, a hand shaped bruise on his left cheek. "…uncle Axel."

Axel groaned, rubbing his left cheek. "Ow, that's gonna leave a mark," he moaned as he got up.

Winona snorted. "I think it already did leave a mark."

Axel opened his mouth, then groaned, half annoyed that the Gym leader had left him without any possibility for a retort, half because opening his mouth had triggered a pulse of pain from the bruise. Winona laughed and left the room, getting ready for a long journey.

Wallace squatted down in front of his young daughter. "Hey, Aerín, since we're talking about Aeron, your mother and I decided to take you to a very important place in that story."

"Which place?" Aerín asked. "Viridian forest? Sootopolis? Somewhere in Fortree?"

"No, no, and no." Wallace said. "We're going to take you to the Thundering Plains."

Aerín gave him a blank stare, to which Wallace chuckled. "The Thundering Plains is an area about the size of a city located a few miles out from Fortree, towards the desert."

"Why is it called the Thundering Plains?" Aerín asked.

"Because Aeron's full power during a battle taking place there created so much thunder that it still echoes across the plains every so often, mere echoes of the battle that took place some seven years ago."

"Why are we going there?" Aerín asked.

Wallace cleared his throat. "That area was the site of Aeron's final victory."

Aerín went silent. Then, "So he died there?"

Wallace nodded. "Yes."

Aerín was silent for another few minutes. "Can't you just show me a picture?"

"No. There's a memorial there that can't really be described with words. We never took pictures because it's an area we can always visit, and it's exactly like he once was- immortal against the forces of time."

"He has a memorial dedicated to him?" Aerín asked, surprised.

"Of course. Out of all of our allies, he did the most for us all. He gave everything to keep us alive…and it eventually cost him his life."

Aerín was uncharacteristically quiet. Winona came in, fully dressed.

"Well, shall we go?" she asked. Aerín nodded enthusiastically.

All occupants of the house went out, ready to go.

"Go, Garcrunch!" Ash yelled, calling his most powerful Pokémon out.

"Altaria, let's do this!" Winona called, sending out the dragon-flying type.

Axel came out, a pair of shades on his forehead. "Come on, Pikachu."

"Right!!" Pikachu said. Axel's that is.

Axel hopped onto a motorcycle, similar to the one that Wes Silvershades of the Orre Region rides. He powered the bike up and revved the engine a couple of times. Pikachu and Espeon jumped into the sidecar.

Wallace pulled his hand up. An unearthly blue radiance began emitting from it, and the area surrounding them darkened, as if it was nighttime and Wallace's hand was the only light. As they watched, water formed out of thin air, twirling itself into a thin whirlpool that rested in his hand.

"Reign transcendent over the seven seas…_Kai-ryu Shukun!!_" Wallace shouted.

The water spun away, revealing a silver trident. It appeared to have a pair of great sea serpents spiraling around it and coming up to the prongs, resting their heads on the base of the main spike. Their eyes were sapphire blue, and every scale was lined with a strange crystalline substance. At the base of the trident was a spike that had the kanji for water blazed on either side of its reflective blue surface.

Wallace whirled it a couple of times, then turned and gestured to Aerín. "Come, Aerín. Hop on my back."

"Oh, uh, okay!!" Aerín called. She took a flying leap onto Wallace's back and wrapped her little arms around his neck, and her legs around his waist.

Wallace waved his zanpakuto, and an arc of water shot into the air, freezing at some point. Wallace jumped onto the new path of ice, skidding towards the edge. As he did so, he took on a stance that had one leg pointing forward, and his weight resting primarily on the back foot. He pointed his trident at the edge, and arcs of water and ice energy struck the edge at a continuous rate, appearing to be lightning but definitely not. He kept moving forward as he froze the area in front of them and letting the area behind him dissipate.

Ash watched him do this. "Guess he learned a couple of tricks from Aeron, huh?" he asked Axel.

Axel nodded. "Aeron often used that technique to get from place to place at a somewhat leisurely pace. Maybe not leisurely in your terms," he added when Ash shot a skeptical glance at the rapidly moving Wallace, "but it was leisurely for us."

"That's nice and all, boys, but we need to get moving," Anabel interrupted.

Axel rolled his eyes. "Girls are _so_ impatient," he muttered, opening the throttle wide and accelerating down the road.

Garcrunch roared and leapt into the air, soon spreading his wings and flying into the air.

Altaria leapt into the air and zoomed after them, floating gently but quickly, like a cloud.

Wallace turned his head backwards briefly, then looked back to the path, saying, "Looks like the others have finally gotten a move on, huh?" Aerín nodded, enjoying the view from their ride.

Wallace sped on his path of ice while the others caught up. Wallace cast a sidelong glance at them and said, "What took you so long?"

"A chat between Ash and Axel, that's what," Anabel replied. Ash cast her an annoyed glance, then just turned back to the scenery. Pikachu and Solana were playing around while this exchange went on, oblivious to the others.

Wallace let his mind wander as he set on the path to the plains, let it wander to the time he had gained his Zanpakuto…

* * *

**Wallace's inner world, six to seven years ago:**

Wallace.

_Wallace stood in the middle of an ocean, with continents of ice floating around. Massive icebergs towered above, so massive that they nearly scraped the sky._

Wallace! Do you hear me?

_A massive, but indefinable shape slithered briefly in the depths._

_"Who's there?" Wallace called._

Don't you know? _came the answer. _Well... I suppose you wouldn't. That's understandable, seeing that you don't know your own legacy.

_The form slithered in the depths briefly before vanishing from sight._

_"Who are you?" Wallace asked._

I am the legacy of your ancestors,_ the voice answered._

_Wallace took a step back as the water bulged, and then an enormous silver-blue sea dragon burst out of the depths, arcing onto the ice. Every scale glistened in the moonlight, flashing with a light blue iridiscence. The dragon had a pair of hind legs on which he stood on, each claw made of a silvery substance that was both beautiful and powerful. The majestic sea serpent spread his wings and roared at the sky. Then he gazed upon Wallace with his sapphire blue irises._

_Wallace immediately bow, sinking down on one knee and lowering his head, a sort of thing that one may think of doing when in the presence of royalty._

_A thrum of amusement flared from the dragon's consciousness. _There is no need for that, Wallace. _Wallace looked up as he spoke. _You need not bow to my power, for my power is yours to command.

_Wallace was rather alarmed. He pointed at himself and asked, "Me? Control _you?_!"_

_A burst of icy wind flared from the serpent's nostrils. Wallace realized that the sea dragon was amused. _You may find the idea ludicrous, but it is true nonetheless. Such is the instinct of a zanpakuto.

_Wallace was dumbfounded. "You're a Zanpakuto?"_

What else could I be? _The dragon asked._

_"But...only Soul Reapers have zanpakuto," Wallace protested, flabbergasted._

_The dragon sighed. _You are ignorant of your heritage, Wallace.

_The dragon shifted his stance slightly. _Where did that pendant around your neck come from?

_Wallace fingered his sapphire-blue pendant, which bore the symbol of a golden trident. "This? It's been in my family for generations. A heirloom of some sort."_

And what kind of crystal makes up the pendant itself? _The dragon asked._

_Wallace was flustered. He'd never thought about it before. He pondered it for a few minutes, then said with a slight frown, "Sapphire?"_

No, _came the answer. _It is not sapphire that hangs around your neck, but aetherium crystal.

Aetherium was the trademark gem of the Four Elemental Cities of old. Your gem in particular is passed down from the ruling family of the city of water, Lakaida. _Wallace was shocked to hear this. He had no idea that he had the blood of a ruler running in his veins. _Likewise, your mate, Winona, has royal blood coursing through her veins. She is of the royal family of Laputa, the city of air. That is why you are drawn to the sea, and she to the sky. The Four Elemental Cities all held elementals, humans that were much farther along in development than the regular branch, humans that wielded the powers of the world, which now primarily rest in the hands of Pokemon...humans that relied..._the dragon fixed his right eye on Wallace as he spoke this part, _...on their inborn Soul Reaper powers.

Now, I am about to tell you a great secret. _Wallace listened as the dragon spoke. _

Zanpakuto are not bound to individual beings. They are simply pledge themselves to konpaku that are most compatible with their power. I myself have been held in the hands of your most powerful ancestors, as only the most skilled of every generation receives my power. Now, it is your turn to take up the mantle.

_Wallace was startled. "Me?" he asked. "I'm not-"_

Wallace, only the chosen of your family were worthy enough to become my hosts. Now I have chosen you as my host. You are worthy. Will you, Wallace Leikalwa, take my power and right the wrongs of this world?

_Wallace took a deep breath and thought of the raging battle outside of his body, going on even as he spoke with his zanpakuto. He closed his eyes and placed his hand over his heart. "I, Wallace Leikalwa, will take your power and do my best..."_

_An image of a Cipher Peon crossed his mind. "...to eliminate Cipher."_

And once that organization has been put down for the last time? _The dragon asked. The are was growing dark, and the dragon was radiating a bright blue glow. Wallace noticed that he was also emitting a glow, exactly the same color as the dragon's._

_"I will do what I can to right the wrongs of this world."_

Then shout...MY NAME!!! _the dragon roared, his voice echoing through the inner world._

_

* * *

_Winona looked over at her husband, and saw the faraway look in his eyes, not focused on anything.

She drew beside him and said, "Hey. Reliving old memories?"

Wallace snapped back to the present, startled. "Huh? Oh, uh, yeah. Just reliving the time I finally got in touch with Kai-ryu Shukun."

Winona chuckled. "You cut it a bit close that day, Wallace," she said. "Yet, you _did_ help us to win that day."

"Yeah..." Wallace said. It was only through his new power that they had managed to prevail over Cipher in that battle, albeit just barely.

Winona then saw the site. "Oh! We're here!"

Wallace zoomed down towards the ground and jumped off the path, letting the ice disintegrate. He let Kai-ryu Shukun dissolve back into the elements, letting his zanpakuto rest while he returned to the site of their last battle.

Wallace strode toward a structure in the middle of the field. At the very top was a life-size sculpture of a young man wielding a double edged sword, pointing it towards the north. Hanging from a golden chain on his neck was a ring, made with a bright green crystal set into a golden frame. The entire thing was shaped like a circle, so if one has to picture it it is quite simply a gold ring covered with a crystalline green substance, minus the last millimeter of the ring on either side of the portruding edge. Laid upon the crystal was a number of flowing runes, engraving an eternal spell into the ring.

Aerín gazed up at it, wondering. "Is that...?

"Yes, Aerín. That is Aeron." Wallace said, looking at it.

They walked up to the structure, where there were words carved into the stone.

_Here is where Aeron Solo, third of the Origin Captains, most powerful of Soul Reapers, and savior of Hoenn died after his final battle against his bitter enemy, Sosuke Aizen. Aeron did the most in the war against Aizen and his cronies, known to us as Cipher. He gave his all, and paid with his life. May his spirit live on in peace, as it deserves._

Aerín walked around, and saw an engraving of Aeron's blade on another side of the pillar. She went to another side, and found herself staring at another carving, but this one was of a strange mask-like object.

She pointed and said, "Daddy, what's this?"

Wallace came over, saw what she was pointing at and his expression darkened. "That, Aerín, is the carving of the only thing that tarnishes Aeron's memory."

"What?" Aerín asked.

"Anei-Aeron," Wallace said. He stayed there for a few moments. Then, "Would you like to move on with the story, Aerín?" he asked.

"Yeah!" she said eagerly.

Wallace began going towards the middle of the field, where the others had spread out a picnic cloth. "Then let's go. There's a lot of stuff to tell, and we only have so much time."

Wallace walked away from the memorial with Aerín hot on his heels. As they left, a small light flared in the crystal before subsiding.


	9. Lineage and Snag Machines

**Viridian Forest, Northwest Sector:**

Aeron materialized in a clearing. He looked around and whistled, informing Garcrunch that it was safe to land.

Garcrunch roared and landed, allowing Ash and Anabel to dismount.

Aeron smiled. "Garcrunches truly are powerful, don't you think?" he asked them. "One can carry things many times larger than that one is."

Anabel raised an eyebrow. "And you know that because…?"

Aeron sighed. "Anabel, do you seriously think that I just seal away a Forbidden Pokémon forever? No. I keep a couple because they can come in handy in a pinch. The rest I simply send to live in another dimension in which they can roam peacefully, a world where they will fit in…a world where they are as normal as the rest."

"In the meantime," Aeron said, sitting as he talked, "we should probably lie low a little. Those two created a huge disturbance, and Cipher's sure to be looking for us."

Ash called Garcrunch back to his Pokéball, and sat down. Anabel sat near him.

Aeron slid up his coat sleeve. "Nothing up my sleeve…"

He let it down and pulled out an entire picnic cloth from it. "Yet, voila!" he exclaimed, whipping a slight breeze through the air and setting it down. He then stuck his hand into his pack and pulled out a cooler, filled with food of all sorts. "Take what you wish."

As the two took the cooler he quickly added, "And try not to get lost in that thing."

"Huh?" the two both asked, confused.

_Open it and you'll see what he means,_ Espeon told them as Aeron lay down.

They opened the cooler, and a wash of cold air rushed out. Aeron chuckled at their confusion as they found a ladder leading down into a rather large space. "What the-?!"

Aeron waved his hand and a pair of coats whipped out of his pack. "Take these; you'll need them."

They put them on and climbed down into the cooler, to find a world in itself waiting them. They gaped at the large shelves with all sorts of stuff to eat loaded on them, and wondered how the heck that Aeron had made this happen.

Aeron peered down into the vault. "Well don't just stand there, pick something!! Those jackets can't hold in your warmth forever!!"

Ash and Anabel grabbed some stuff, still a bit shell-shocked by the little world. They climbed back out and took off their jackets, which Aeron picked up and put in his pack.

"So, how did you like going into my little food storage?" Aeron asked, grinning at their expressions.

"How the heck did you make that?!" Ash asked.

Aeron shrugged. "When you have access to the use of Undetectable expansion charms, you can do a lot with a little thing like that.

Ash went over and lifted the cooler with no trouble whatsoever. "But wouldn't a "little world" weigh much more?"

Aeron smirked and walked over to the cooler, and pulled back a plastic plate to reveal an anti-gravity generator as thin as a CD case. "There are about eight of these beauties set into this."

He slid the panel back over it. "And people say I'm not sophisticated."

* * *

"Is that where you got this from?" Aerín asked, gesturing to the cooler they had brought.

"Yep," Anabel said, smiling. "He left us everything he had, although technically you're the rightful owner of all his stuff."

Aerín was startled. "Me? I own his stuff?"

Wallace nodded. "Yes. He told us to hang onto his stuff so that you have it when you grew old enough to understand."

Winona popped open a can of lemonade. "Speaking of which, you have no idea what he left you, do you?"

Aerín shook her head. "No, why?"

Axel grinned and lay back, dragging his shades over his eyes. "That guy was a genius. What took centuries for humanity to figure out, it took him a matter of minutes. His tech renders anything used today obsolete; nothing can compete with it."

The others began some discussion while Aerín pondered, lost in her own thoughts. Then she thought of something. "Ash, Rayquaza said something about being an Aura Guardian. What was that about?"

Ash bit his lip, thinking about how best to answer that question.

Axel quickly broke in. "Aerín, do you know what an Aura Guardian is?"

Aerín nodded. "The Jedi of the Pokémon world, right?"

Axel chuckled. "Yes, that's right. They gather Aura to do their bidding, and all that."

"What if I told you, though, that Aura Guardians are a special type of Quincy?"

"Huh?!" Aerín was shocked.

"Yep, it's true. Even among Quincy there are species variations. Unlike regular Quincy, Aura Guardians can also focus the ambient life force in the area. This makes them more powerful than regular a Quincy. They are not limited to bows. They can also make use of lances, swords, and other things. Even unleash attacks without the use of a weapon, as shown by Aura Sphere."

Espeon coiled herself around Aerín's shoulders. _If you have more questions, young one, then save them for later, because the first of all Aura Guardians is about to appear in the tale._

"Huh?" Aerín was confused. "What do you mean?"

They were suddenly aware of a shadow looming over them. Aerín turned around and saw…Ash?!

Aerín looked to where Ash was sitting earlier, who was still sitting over there. She turned back to the newcomer. Still there.

On second glance, though, the young man was a little different from Ash. He was older, and his hairstyle was a little bit more confined to his head. His eyes were sapphire blue, his facial features more streamlined, and he was taller by a good one and a half feet.

Wallace inclined his head. "Well, well. Care to join us, Ashura?"

Ashura smiled. "I will, thank you." He sat down nearby. "So this is the young Aerín?" he asked, eyeing Aerín. "She looks very much like Winona, but there is an air to her face that reminds me of Aeron."

Winona smiled wryly. "That just about sums things up."

"Mmm. I assume that she's been quite a handful, huh?"

Wallace and Winona groaned while the others, save for Aerín laughed. "You have no idea," Wallace informed him.

"That bad, huh?" Ashura asked with a grin. He popped open the cooler and paused, looking down into the depths. "This is Aeron's isn't it?" The others gave the affirmative. "Makes sense. Only he would be harebrained enough to think of this."

Aerín finally found her tongue. "Wh-Who are you?"

Ashura turned his blue-eyed gaze towards her. "Ah, yes, that's the question, now, isn't it?" He pointed at a sandwich and it glowed blue, flying to his hand. "You'll find out soon."

He took a bite. "I understand that you are telling her of the events leading up to her birth," he said through his food. He swallowed and then said, "Shall we continue?"

Wallace nodded. "Yes."

* * *

_Snap!!_

Everyone froze as a twig snapped. Aeron surveyed the area, and suspicion clouded his voice. "Who's there?"

Two slightly shadowy figures moved out of the trees. "Geez, Aeron, you're too suspicious," one said, definitely male and sounding unusually like Ash, but older.

"Several hundred years and this hasn't changed at all," the other said, distinctively female and sounding very much like Anabel, although there was a more feminine cast to her voice.

Aeron sighed and relaxed. "You two are always around when something interesting is going on, aren't you?"

The two moved into the light, and both Ash and Anabel gasped. The male figure looked very much like Ash, albeit being taller, older, having more streamlined features and sapphire blue eyes. The girl was strikingly similar to Anabel, with similar differences and slightly longer hair, though her eye color was the same as Anabel's.

Aeron smiled. "Guys, meet Ashura and Annabelle (Ah-nah-bell, as opposed to the short "a" in Anabel's name). They're two of my good friends."

Ashura surveyed Ash and Anabel. "Nice to meet you."

Ash managed to recover his tongue. "Nice to meet you too."

Annabelle tilted her head to the side. "What question lies at the tip of your tongue, Anabel?"

Anabel was flustered, partially because she never said her name, and partially because of the young lady's perceptiveness. "Uh…why do you and Ashura look and sound so much like me and Ash, respectively?"

Annabelle examined her closely. "Now that I look at you, you do look like me. And your voice sounds kind of like mine, too, although it's kind of easier to mistake you for a boy…" Anabel bristled a little at this, which Annabelle ignored.

Ashura examined Ash. "Yes, quite right, I believe. Now how could this be?"

Aeron shrugged. "Search me, but maybe you should try and keep track of your descendants."

All people in the clearing halted, and slowly turned towards Aeron. "Come again?"

Aeron sighed. "I said that you should keep an eye on the blood lines."

Ash was puzzled. "What's that supposed to mean?"

Aeron pointed. Ash and Anabel saw rings on Ashura and Annabelle's hands, and the truth dawned on them.

"Wait, you guys are married?" Ash asked, incredulous.

Both inclined their heads. "Yeah, what about it?" Ashura asked. "Okay, we did have kids, but they lacked our time-immortality."

Ash and Anabel looked at each other. "Wait, then that means…"

"You guys are of the same family, but extremelydistantly," Aeron said. They all turned to him as he explained. "I've studied your bloodlines, and there is a distinct lack of similarity. Your DNA has a .0000000000000000001 similarity between them, implying that your sides of the family have had very little interaction. That means that you're on two opposite sides of the family tree; you'd need a world-sized tree to fit the both of you on the same one. So you might as well consider yourselves not related."

The two nodded numbly, still a little bit shocked at the discovery.

"On that happy note," Aeron said, quickly changing the subject, "Ashura, Annabelle, what brings you two here on this fine day? I take it this wasn't just for a hello."

Ashura nodded. "That's right. We've been picking up more and more shadow-type reiatsu from the Pokémon regions. There's something going on, and you seem to know what's going on."

Aeron chuckled. "Well, I always seem to know what's going on, don't I?"

Ashura grinned ruefully. "If there's trouble in the immediate area, you're always in the thick of it."

Annabelle sighed. "That's the other thing that hasn't changed, isn't it?"

Aeron raised an eyebrow. "Oh, really? What would that be?"

Annabelle smirked. "Your tendency to intentionally seek out trouble and plunge into the deepest possible part of it."

It was Aeron's turn to grin, rather sheepishly. "Hey, I am who I am. Deal with it."

Annabelle rolled her eyes in annoyance. Ashura turned to Ash, and observed him closely.

"Well, well, what have we here?" Ashura asked, grasping Ash's wrist and observing his hand closely.

"What are you doing?!" Ash yelled, kind of creeped out.

"The aura is with this young one," Ashura remarked. "The aura around his hands is fluctuating most interestingly."

Aeron nodded. "He's got your power, Ashura, although it's not quite at your level...yet."

Ashura nodded. "Makes sense; he's been doing things by instinct rather than by formal instruction."

"Then who better to instruct..." Aeron began.

_...than the first Aura Guardian himself?_ Espeon asked.

Ash and Anabel stared.

"First..." Ash began.

"...Aura Guardian?" Anabel finished.

Aeron, Annabelle, Ashura, and Espeon all turned to them.

"How old do you think we are?" Aeron asked.

"Uh..." Ash and Anabel realized that they had no idea.

"A thousand years?" Ash guessed.

Aeron sighed and threw him a weary look. "No. We are all nearly as old as time itself. All of us Origin Captains are."

That came as a great shock.

...as time itself!!! Both Ash and Anabel thought, stunned by the discovery.

Aeron grinned. "One could say that we're all relics from the old world. However, that doesn't change the fact that our experience is far beyond that of almost any living being on the face of the Earth." His grin faded. "The only exceptions are among Pokémon, and Sosuke Aizen himself."

Annabelle raised an eyebrow. "You bring up him because...?"

Aeron sighed and slicked back his hair. "He's back, Annabelle. Aizen's back, and is once again in command of Cipher."

A shocked look shot across the faces of Ashura and Annabelle. "No way...what does it take to kill this guy?" Ashura asked.

Aeron shrugged. "Ichigo Kurosaki was unable to do so. I was unable to do so. All thirteen of us combined wasn't enough either. I don't know what it would take to kill him. We surely outmatched him by at least thirty times in strength, yet he somehow survives each encounter."

Ashura sighed. "That's a pain." The first of the Aura Guardians looked up in the sky. "How much sorrow has he wracked upon the years?" he wondered aloud.

"Lots. Lots and lots of sorrow."

Ashura sighed. "An even bigger pain. Couldn't you do something about that?"

Aeron flung up his hands in a display of helplessness. "I've been doing all I can! The problem is that he never strikes directly, preventing me from taking him out directly. He always sends his little lackeys to do the job."

Ashura sighed again. "Well, isn't that problematic."

Aeron snorted. "Problematic is an understatement. The best thing that could happen right now is that Aizen gets overconfident and strikes us directly."

Annabelle sighed. "But he isn't that stupid. A being of shadow he may be, but he's a genius too, remember." Aeron nodded grimly in agreement.

Ashura shrugged. "Right now, that isn't important. What's up these shadow reiatsu?"

Aeron sighed. "The reason for that is the fact that Cipher is creating more and more Shadow Pokémon."

"What exactly are Shadow Pokémon?" Annabelle inquired.

"Shadow Pokémon are Pokémon that have had the element of Shadow forced upon them by forcibly closing their hearts, allowing the shadows within to forcibly manifest as elemental power." Aeron said. "They've been making them for the past ten years, but only recently have they begun to crop up in such vast amounts."

Ashura growled. "Gotta hate Cipher. Every plan of theirs is worse and worse, isn't it?" Aeron grunted in agreement. "How do you restore them to normal?"

Aeron grinned. "I've been experimenting with such methods. You have to open their hearts. There are many ways to do this, but the core is that one has to bathe their hearts in the light of kindness and friendship, and all that is good. You can use heavenly powers to do this, like the power behind Aetherium, or you can use Aura to coax them back to normal..." At this Ashura grinned. He knew how to do this. "...or you could develop friendship over time and expose the Shadow Pokémon to a site of divine/heavenly power, like the Relic Stone, which contains the power of Celebi, or the uppermost temple of Spear Pillar, which has swirled with the powers of the Dragon Trio, or you could send them to Michista, which has Arceus' own powers, or..." Aeron dramatically paused. "You could take them to a temple of light."

Ashura nad Annabelle looked thunderstruck. "The temples of the Beings of Light?" Ashura asked, stunned.

Aeron nodded. "Those temples are the strongest places of purification. Nothing better to grant light than the light itself, eh?"

"What are the Beings of Light?" Ash asked, apparently missing some information.

To everyone except for Aeron and Espeon's surprise, Anabel was the one who answered. "The Beings of Light are a nearly extinct race of human souls that once walked the Earth. They held the power of Light in their hands, which as an elemental power was far more powerful than what is generated by the material world. They were all noble, pure, and they did good. Sadly, few human souls have enough good in their hearts to evolve into members of this higher race."

Ashura raised an eyebrow. "Oh? You've been well educated, Anabel."

Anabel shrugged. "Just some stuff I picked up from my lessons with Aeron."

Ashura's eyebrow raised even higher. "Is that so?" he asked, turning to Aeron and narrowing his eyes slightly.

Aeron shrugged. "What can I say? She was a curious child. I let her get ahold of one of my books, and I was forced to answer her questions."

"Which were...?"

"What were these "Beings of Light" the book spoke of? What are Forbidden Spells, Shinigami, Hollows, and Seireitei? What techniques do I know in Kido, Hakuda, Hoho and Zanjutsu? What was "The Great War"? Who are the Corrupted Four?" Aeron paused. "Who are the Origin Captains? Questions the like of them."

"A lot of the past revealed, huh?" Ashura asked.

Aeron nodded in agreement.

"What's all that about?" Ash was not following these things very well.

"Ash, there is a story behind me, Aizen, Cipher, Ashura, Annabelle, and others that took place long before you were born. You may find bits and pieces as time ticks on, but they will have to be left for another time." Aeron looked at him expectantly, as if he expected Ash to argue.

Ash sighed. "All right, all right..." he agreed reluctantly. From their conversation on Garcrunch's back during the flight, Anabel had told him that when Aeron witheld information, it was nearly impossible to wrestle it from him, and he usually did so for a good reason.

Aeron nodded. "Right then." He turned to Annabelle and said, "Now there's a question on your tongue, Annabelle. How do we get these Shadow Pokémon purified? I mean really, we're not big on stealing Pokémon, and it's not as if we can catch them..." Aeron's eyes twinkled as he said this last part. "Or can we?"

Annabelle sighed. "Third thing that hasn't changed; your annoying tendency to read minds."

"Deal with it." Aeron rummaged through his pack. "I know I put it in here somewhere...Ah! Here it is!!"

"Here what is?" Ashura asked.

"This." Aeron held up a Pokéball like device, but green and gold patterned. He tapped the button, and it transformed into an armor on his right arm, green with yellow power lines arcing across it. Set where the fingernails would be were golden diamond-shaped aetherium crystals, as well as a much larger one on the back of the hand. Set in the palm was a circular, rounded emerald colored aetherium crystal. Servos whirred quietly as Aeron moved his arm about.

Ashura was puzzled. "What is that?"

Anabel gasped suddenly. The others turned to her.

"Anabel? What's wrong?" Ash asked. Anabel, however, wasn't listening, as her mind was in the past, when she had first seen that machine...

* * *

**Anabel's past, seven or so years ago:**

"Hmm-hmm..."

A young Anabel was humming quietly to herself as she skipped through the Verdanturf woods.

She danced past a group of Swablu. "Morning!" she called out, getting a number of friendly chirps in response.

Ever since she had met Aeron, she had been going more and more into the Verdanturf woods. Aeron was a very good teacher; it was very easy for her now to befriend any Pokémon that she ran into, or calm them down when they were in a rage, or even cheer them up when they were down. Most of the Pokémon in the woods were now her friends.

Anabel paused next to a number of Beedrill working on a new hive. "Excuse me?" she asked. The Beedrill paused their work and turned to her. "Can you tell me where Aeron went?"

The Beedrill buzzed a couple of times, conveying to her that Aeron had passed a few minutes ago. One flew over and indicated the direction in which he went.

"Thank you! Have a good day!" she called, waving as she left. The Beedrill waved back and resumed their work.

Anabel navigated the forest, trying to find where Aeron had decided to hide this time. Soon enough, she sensed Aeron's strong presence, emanating power as usual. She looked up and saw Aeron smiling down at her from a tree.

"Good morning, Anabel," Aeron said, scooting out of the tree. "Looks like you found me. I see you can understand Pokémon very well now."

Anabel shrugged. "Helps when you have a teacher who knows what he's doing."

"Good thing you're not taking lessons from a pretender, huh?" Aeron asked. Anabel laughed in response.

"C'mon. There's a little something, or someone, that I want you to see."

Aeron strode easily through the forest, with Anabel struggling to catch up. Aeron's long strides were coupled with fairly rapid footsteps, resulting in a walking speed that even runners would have trouble keeping up with.

After a few minutes, they came to a stop in a clearing, deeper into the woods than Anabel had ever gone before.

Anabel looked around. "Where are we?"

Aeron smiled. "In the presence of friends." Aeron picked a certain plant from the ground and lifted the hollow stem to his lips. He blew into it, and it created a beautiful melody that echoed around the area.

Moments later, an Espeon came bounding out of the underbrush, flying straight at Aeron. Aeron realized a bit late what would happen.

Espeon tackled Aeron to the ground. "UGH!!!" Aeron yelled as he hit the earth. He sighed. "Espeon, why?"

_You always hurt the ones you love_, Espeon replied, giggling a little as Aeron groaned.

"Sometimes I wonder if taking you in was a mistake," Aeron muttered as he got to his feet.

Espeon shrugged. _Hey, at least I don't hate you_.

"That's true, of course," Aeron admitted. "I've seen what happens when you hate people."

Anabel was astonished. Aeron and Espeon turned towards her. "Anabel, meet my oldest friend; Espeon."

_Pleased to meet you_. Espeon did a sort of courteous bow.

"Pleased to meet you too," Anabel replied, also bowing.

A smile touched Espeons lips. You don't need to bow, you know. I just bow out of habit. Like Aeron, I'm kind of old-school, if you follow my meaning. Anabel numbly replied, "Okay."

Aeron looked around. "Now, where could that little one b-AGH!!!"

All of a sudden, a ball of brown fur with a tuft of cream fell out of the trees and landed smack-dab on Aeron's head. Aeron's eyes bugged out of his head from the impact, and he toppled to the ground, partially stunned.

Espeon ran over. _Eevee!! she scolded. You shouldn't do that!!_

"_Why not?_" the young Eeevee, definitely female, asked. _"You give him lots of pummeling, mom!"_

_This is different. _Espeon said firmly. _I at least know how far to go. You do things overmuch._

_"But mom-!!"_

_No buts. You know that you overdid it. Look, he actually got bruised from that impact!!_

_"Whoa, he can actually get bruised_?!" Eevee was suddenly interested in the lump on Aeron's head, the conversation forgotten.

_EEVEE!!_

_"What now, mom?"_

_Stop getting sidetracked!!_

_"Okay, okay," _Eevee reluctantly turned her gaze back to her mother.

Aeron sat up and rubbed his head. "Man, that _sucked_. Espeon, why is your line always a pain in the neck? Or the head, in this case?"

Espeon shrugged. _No idea. Must get it from the one who cares for us, hmm?_ Aeron groaned in response.

Eevee trotted cutely up to Anabel and said. "_Hi! I'm Eevee! Nice to meet you!_"

"I'm Anabel. Nice to meet you, too."

"_Wanna be friends?_" Eevee asked, making an amazing leap onto Anabel's shoulder.

"Sure, why not?" Anabel asked.

Aeron sighed. "Anabel, meet your first Pokémon, Eevee."

This brought Anabel to a halt. "Huh?"

"Eevee is old enough to live with a trainer now, but we don't usually have time to raise her. Then I thought of you and asked myself, 'Why not let Anabel have Eevee? She'd have a really good friend.' So I talked with Espeon and Eevee about it, and they both gave their consent, and so now Eevee is your "starter"." Aeron looked anxiously at Eevee. "Eevee, _please_ don't cause too much trouble in Anabel's household. I don't want to get sued!"

"_No troubles. We'll get along great!!_" Eevee replied.

"I'm not worried about you two getting along. I'm more worried about what you'll do in that house."

Anabel threw him a puzzled look, and he responded simply with a couple memories of what Eevee did in _his_ house; Eevee playing a _little_ too roughly with the other Pokémon, ensuing in a huge brawl that took Aeron's Bankai to end. Eevee exploring the kitchen cupboards and knocking everything to the floor. Eevee making lots of trouble, to say the least.

Anabel wasn't too concerned. "That's okay. I'll manage."

Aeron looked rather relieved, although he was still a little anxious. "If you think so, then I guess it can happen."

Their peaceful little interactions were interrupted with a cry ringing out through the forest. Aeron turned sharply. "What was that?"

The cry came again, and a male voice hollered something indistinct, but it was very angry.

"C'mon," Aeron said, offering Anabel his back. Anabel jumped on, and Espeon and Eevee joined. them.

Aeron flash-stepped all the way to the area of the cries, and came upon the sight of a trainer hollering at his Gardevoir.

"Why?! Why didn't you win that one?! You were much higher level, and much more powerful!! You should have won that one!!"

_I-I couldn't!! The other Pokémon had an extremely high special de-AGH!!! _The Gardevoir screamed as the trainer Rhydon slammed her with a Rock Slide.

"No excuses!! That was an easy contest, and you LOST IT!!"

Rhydon roared and raised his horn.

"As punishment, you're about to faint by Rhydon's Horn Drill!!" the trainer shouted. "Do it, Rhydon!!"

Rhydon drove his horn down, ready to end the punishment...

...and found his horn met at point blank with a powerful barrier of energy, rendering the attack useless.

"Eh?!" the trainer asked. Rhydon was also confused, before seeing past the flash of his horn to a Deoxys with an emerald crystalline organ in defense form blocking the attack.

"That's not right," Aeron said, venturing into view, another Deoxys hovering behind him, this one with an amethyst crystalline organ, along with Espeon. "You shouldn't punish your Pokémon just because they lost."

"What do you care?! It's not your business!!"

"As long as there's something I can do about it, it becomes my business," Aeron replied with an icy cast to his voice that made Anabel shiver.

"Yeah, well, Deoxys or not YOU'RE GOING DOWN!! HORN DRILL!!!"

Aeron sighed. "You just don't get it, do you?"

Emerald, the Deoxys at odds with Rhydon, suddenly flashed and turned into his speed form. He zoomed away, at the same time that Amethyst, the other one, zoomed through in his own speed form and scooped up Gardevoir and getting her out of the way of the attack.

"We're not losing," Aeron said, whirling out a green Pokéball-like device with golden lines across its surface. He tapped the button, and it spread across his arm as an armor-like device that had golden diamond-shaped aetherium crystals set where the fingernails would be, as well as a much larger one on the back of the hand. Set in the palm was a circular, rounded emerald colored aetherium crystal. Servos whirred quietly as Aeron moved his arm about.

The trainer snorted. "So. You've got a fancy gadget."

"BIG WHUP!!!" he hollered, gesturing for Rhydon to attack again, heading straight for Amethyst.

Aeron suddenly whirled out a Pokéball in his hand. "_Felus Caran!!_" he uttered, and the ball was energized with a strange power. Then he hurled it at the trainers Gardevoir, a claw-like aura flaring out.

"Ha!! What're you, a noob?! Don't you know that Pokémon already assigned to a trainer can't-?!"

The Pokéball snared Gardevoir, and fell to the ground. It shook several times, and then pulsated gently, indicating a capture.

"...be...caught?" the trainer asked, shocked.

Aeron held out his hand, and a lightning bolt struck down from the sky, forming into his shikai, which had been mysteriously absent from his hip. "I'm finishing this," Aeron said, raising his left hand to his face.

"SH-SHUT UP!!!" the trainer shouted, and Rhydon attacked Aeron with a Horn Drill.

"_Sigh..._ quite the hothead aren't you?" Aeron asked.

The surrounding area suddenly turned a dark blue monotonous background. A black energy shrouded in gold drew to Aeron's face, under where Aeron held his hand. Aeron ripped his hand downwards, donning a black mask with a golden vertical stripe down the middle, two vertical stripes going from the tops of his head curving inwards to the inside corners of his eyes, and then outwards to either side of his chin. Above and below the eyes were groups of five golden marks that shot off to either side of his mask. His sclera turned black, and his irises an iridiscent gold.

"What the-?!" the trainer yelled, just before Aeron raced forward at blinding speed and met Rhydon's Horn Drill with his sword, forcing the Pokémon backwards.

Aeron narrowed his eyes, and exerted more force, sending Rhydon flying backwards. Aeron whipped his blade over his head, gathering icy energy. "_Hyouryu Senbi!!_" he shouted, sending a wave of ice flying towards Rhydon. Rhydon roared in pain as the attack struck.

"Rhydon!! How-?!" the trainer yelled, before Aeron was suddenly above Rhydon and pointing his sword blade at him, icy energy pulling to a sphere at the tip.

"_Hyouketsu Bakuha!!_" Aeron shouted, blasting a shining jet of icy power that froze Rhydon in a solid block of ice, taking him out for the count.

"Urgh!!" the trainer gritted his teeth. He held up another Pokéball. "Go!! Meta-!!"

Aeron swung his hand, and hit the Pokéball with a freezing blast, freezing it shut, and the trainer's hand to it.

"Aah!!" the trainer yelled, swinging his hand. "My hand!!"

He suddenly found Aeron's sword pointing at his throat. "_I could kill you for being so cruel to your Pokémon,_" Aeron said, his voice having an eerie echo underneath it. He whirled his blade away. "_But you are not worthy of dying by my blade, and I've never had much taste for killing._"

"Ha!! Miserable coward!!" the trainer mocked.

_KLANK!!!_

_A critical hit!!_

_It's super effective!!_

Aeron had brought up his foot and kicked the fool in the fork of his legs, hurting him where it, well, hurt most. Anabel and Espeon looked at him with shock. Even Emerald and Amethyst, who rarely showed emotion, were somewhat horrified by Aeron's attack.

"_Yeah, Aeron!! Hit him where it hurts!!_" cheered Eevee, bouncing up and down on Anabel's shoulder.

Aeron let the guy slump to the ground, foaming at the mouth and completely out.

Aeron spirited the mask off of his face and said, "I think this is punishment enough, wouldn't you?" All the others gathered nodded mutely, unsure of what to say. Save perhaps Eevee, who nodded cheerfully rather than numbly like the others.

Aeron sealed his sword and placed it in its usual place at his hip. His armor shifted back into its portable state, and he immediately pocketed it. "Emerald, Amethyst, thanks for the help. You guys can run off and do whatever it is you guys do on a regular basis."

Emerald and Amethyst nodded. _Till next time, Aeron,_ they said, and flew off.

Anabel looked at Aeron, a question on her lips. Aeron noticed this and raised an eyebrow. "What was that machine?" Aeron asked, voicing Anabel's question before she could say it herself. She nodded. "That was a Snag Machine, a device made to steal Pokémon from their trainers. I created it for the sole purpose of taking Pokémon from rather abusive trainers to spare them pain and suffering. It can do other things, but that's beside the point."

Anabel gaped. "You would steal?!" she asked, horrified.

Aeron sighed. "Anabel, I never steal for myself. I only take something without asking if I have to do so, and it's always for other people's sake."

"But still..."

"You think I like doing this?" Aeron asked, a bit of impatience rising to the service. "You think I enjoy engaging in criminal activity? No, I don't. This is something I do, though, to alleviate the suffering of abused Pokémon."

_Remember, we're talking about a person with more good in his heart than most people today,_ Espeon reminded her, but not letting Aeron pick up the thought.

"But what if someone stole it?" Anabel asked.

Aeron shook his head. "It wouldn't work. The aetherium crystals in it are imprinted with my reiatsu and DNA. If I'm not the one using it, it doesn't work."

"And what if you give other people ideas?" Anabel asked.

Aeron sighed. "That would be a problem, but I'm confident that I can foil their plans before things get too wild."

Anabel was reassured now. This was Aeron she was talking about. If anybody could be trusted with this, there was no better person to trust it to.

Aeron walked to a path. "Come on," he said. "Let's lighten the day with some lessons, eh?"

Anabel ran after him, with Eevee clinging to her shoulder and Espeon close behind, all eager to abandon the dreary events that just happened.

* * *

"Anabel!!"

Anabel snapped back to the present. "Huh? Oh, sorry," she said, rubbing the back of her head sheepishly. "I was having a flashback."

Aeron shrugged. "We all have such things. Was it about _that_ day?" Anabel nodded.

Ash felt a little bit annoyed. "Am I the only one that doesn't have a clue what's going on around here?" he asked.

Aeron looked at him, slightly sheepish. "In all essence, yes."

Ash smacked the ground. "Man, I hate being left out!" he growled.

Aeron sighed. "If it helps, Ash, I can-"

Aeron, Annabelle and Ashura suddenly whipped around, their senses alert. Ash and Anabel noticed this behavior, and their hands immediately went to their Pokéballs.

"Who's there?" Aeron called, his eyes narrowing.

"My, my. I had been informed that the Third Origin Captain was an alert one, but I never knew it was this bad," a somewhat monotonous voice without any emotion said, emanating from a pale figure in a white coat, with black lining on the inside. He had black hair, green eyes, slit-like pupils, green tear-marks under his eyes, and a strange helmet-like mask remnant upon his head.

"C'mon Ulquiorra, he's just another insect to crush under our feet," a large arrancar with a lower jawbown for a mask remnant. He was much taller than his companion, and noticeably more muscular, although Aeron could tell that the one named Ulquiorra was stronger.

Aeron suddenly noticed. _Ulquiorra? Wasn't he one of the slain Espada?_ he wondered.

Aeron looked at the two. "What do you want?" he asked.

"We're here to examine your strength and report it to Lord Aizen," Ulquiorra said flatly.

Aeron snorted. "Then I suppose you'll crush me? Or try to?"

"If it's within our abilities, then yes," Ulquiorra informed him.

Aeron smirked and yanked his sword from his sheath. "Ashura, Annabelle, stand back." The two nodded and stepped back towards Ash and Anabel, stopping a few feet from them.

Aeron smiled and gestured grandly. "You want to test my strength? Then come at me like your life depends on it!!"

Ulquiorra crouched briefly, then sprang towards Aeron, drawing his sword in the process. Yammy jumped at Aeron as well, his fists humming with Bala. Aeron grinned and jumped at his foes as well.

The battle had begun.


	10. A War Begins

"Ha!" Yammy shouted, blasting Aeron with his Bala. Aeron blocked the bala with his blade and slashed at Yammy.

"Hmph!" Yammy sneered, whipping his hand at the blade and batting it aside. Aeron ducked low under the punch and fired an Aura Sphere into Yammy's chest.

"Argh! Why you-!"

"_Shinsei Bakuha!_" Aeron shouted. A ring of spiritual pressure drew to his finger, and then fired in a basketball sized teardrop-like blast, the round end zooming towards Yammy. The blast rocketed into Yammy's midsection, throwing him backwards several feet.

"Oogh!" Yammy grunted. He opened his mouth and charged his scarlet cero, and prepared to fire it.

Aeron pointed at Yammy's face and snapped off another shot. It rocketed into Yammy's still-charging cero and destabilized it, causing it to explode in Yammy's face.

"Agh!" Yammy yelled. He glared at Aeron. "You're going to pay for that, you ant!"

"Really? I don't know if you've noticed, but I don't have any money on me," Aeron replied.

Ashura, Annabelle, Ash, Anabel, Espeon, and Yammy all fell over in exasperation. Ulquiorra simply smacked himself in the forehead and shook his head. The ones that fell over then, as one (totally unrehearsed), yelled at him, "ARE YOU SOME KIND OF IDIOT?"

"Maybe," Aeron admitted. They fell over again, yet again exasperated.

"You've lowered your guard," Aeron noted, zooming at Yammy with his blade extended. Yammy whipped his hand back and prepared another Bala, but Aeron stuck his blade into it and negated it before it could even fire.

"It's over, Riyalgo." Aeron swung his blade at Yammy's neck.

_Klang!_

Ulquiorra stopped the blade with his tough hierro, grasping Aeron's blade with his bare hand.

Aeron raised an eyebrow. "Protecting your own? This isn't something I'd expect you to do, Ulquiorra."

"It would be a great inconvenience for Lord Aizen if Yammy were to die. The effort it would take to elect a new Espada to Yammy's position could hamstring his plans. Therefore, it would be in his best interests to preserve Yammy, however thickheaded he may be," Ulquiorra reasoned.

"Smart one, aren't you?" Aeron asked.

He and Ulquiorra exerted force at the same time and leapt away from each other.

"You may have a resistant Hierro, but how will it fare against my Kido?" Aeron asked, a ball of red fire forming in his palm. He pointed his hand at Ulquiorra. "_Hado 31: Shakkaho!_"

Ulquiorra fired a single Bala into the blast as it flew, negating it completely. Ulquiorra pointed his hand at Aeron. "_Hado 63: Raikoho!_"

Aeron watched with a hint of surprise as Ulquiorra fired a massive blast of lightning at him. He whipped his hand up and pointed. "_Bakudo 81: Danku!_"

A screen of clear energy projected from Aeron's hand and blocked the blast. Aeron smiled up at Ulquiorra. "So Aizen has taught you how to use Kido. Very impressive."

"I'm guessing you're currently the only arrancar to use kido?" Aeron asked as Ulquiorra fired a Sokatsui blast at him.

"Quite correct," Ulquiorra confirmed as Aeron filled the area he just occupied with a hail of laser blasts from Geki Rekko.

"Looks like we're even when using the same spells, eh?" Aeron asked, dodging the fourth hado, Byakurai. He whipped his hand up. "_Hyouga Seiran!_"

Ulquiorra brought his own hand up. "_Bakudo 81: Danku!_"

Ulquiorra's own screen blocked the blast from the front, but Ulquiorra was forced to jump away anyway, as the blast of ice flooded in from the sides.

Ulquiorra materialized high above. Aeron materialized a few feet away.

"We're getting nowhere with this," Aeron noted, and jumped at Ulquiorra with his sword outstretched.

Ulquiorra met his sword with his hand, blocking it completely. Ulquiorra frowned. _From the reports, I would've guessed that he would've cut my arm, if only a little._

Aeron swept his blade around, smashing Ulquiorra with his blade. Each time, Ulquiorra blocked it with his own hands. Then he brought his leg around and, with barely any hint of effort, kicked Aeron through a tree.

"Man, this Arrancar's tough," Aeron commented. He looked up as Ulquiorra came up in front of him and stabbed at him with his hand. Aeron caught Ulquiorra's wrist and managed to slow him down enough that his hand bounced off of his own hierro with a dull impact.

"You're very weak. It would be a stretch to say that you are a fifth of Captain General Yamamoto's strength. Is this really your level of power?" Ulquiorra asked.

"No, actually; I'm half-pretending to be weak," Aeron replied.

"How amusing," Ulquiorra shot back.

Aeron and Ulquiorra whirled away. "If you were pretending, then I'm guessing that you have a Gentei Reiin." Ulquiorra hypothesized. "Am I wrong?"

"No; you're actually quite on the mark, more or less." Aeron held up his left hand, which had a ring on it. "Do you know what's so special about this ring?"

When he got no response, Aeron continued. "This ring has a number of seals on it. About three, I should say. These seals exact a drain upon my powers. The drain for each is about 4/5 of my strength at that level. The first was placed on my full power, reducing my power by around 4/5 of it. The second was placed upon my resulting strength, reducing it by near 4/5. The third was placed on my strength at that level, reducing it to this state." Ulquiorra's eyes flared wide open when he realized what Aeron was implying.

"You've realized, haven't you?" Aeron asked. "My real strength at this level is 125 times this; 25 times more powerful than the current captain general!"

Aeron moved his hand over the ring, and the gold line of runes flashed brightly. Aeron's spiritual pressure rose by about 5 times its first level of might.

"Now, let's start again!" Aeron said, jumping at Ulquiorra.

Ulquiorra whipped out his sword and met the attack, noticing Aeron's augmented strength. _Such power! He's roughly equal to Captain-commander Yamamoto, which is about the same as my current strength!_ Ulquiorra noted.

He didn't have time for anther thought as Aeron moved his blade to his left hand and struck again, forcing back Ulquiorra's blade. Ulquiorra noted this with alarm and moved away, charging a Cero as he did so. Aeron whipped up his hand and gathered three lines of light to his finger, and added two rounds of three more to the rapidly growing sphere at the point where they met.

"_Shinsei Taiho!"_ Aeron shouted, and fired his attack directly into Ulquiorra's fully charged Cero. The two attacks met and cancelled each other out.

Yammy suddenly appeared behind Aeron and attacked him with his own sword. Aeron looked at him with annoyance and caught the blade in his hand, barely making any effort to hold back Yammy's blade. Aeron twisted the blade and flipped Yammy upside down and then kicked him high into the air. Then he flash-stepped, causing Yammy to look around in confusion.

Aeron appeared above Yammy. "Heavy one aren't you?" he asked, causing Yammy to flinch. "So heavy, that your ability to stand in the air will fail. Miserably."

Aeron pressed his foot against Yammy's shoulder and pushed against him, sending himself further up and thrusting Yammy into the ground, cratering the ground from the impact.

Aeron whipped his sword behind his back, and Ulquiorra's sword connected with it, foiled in its attempt to deal Aeron a potentially fatal wound.

Aeron looked at the Espada. "Now I have a question for you. Didn't you die?"

Ulquiorra nodded. "I did, as a matter of fact."

Aeron and Ulquiorra skimmed blades and then attacked each other head-on, clashing blades in front of them.

"Then how exactly are you standing in front of me and trying to kill me? Did you come back from the underworld? Oh wait, that's impossible, since you're already dead, given that you're a hollow."

"Lord Aizen saw fit to restore my life," Ulquiorra replied dispationately.

"Really? And what did he do, summon a fairy and bring you back from the extinguished?" Aeron asked, whipping his blade away. He raised his foot and stomped backwards into the nads of Yammy, who had tried to sneak up on Aeron and crush him.

_A critical hit!_

_It's super effective!_

Yammy's eyes rolled back in his head and he plummeted to the ground. Again.

_Yammy fainted!_

Aeron looked at the fallen Espada. "Perhaps I overdid it," he mused.

Ulquiorra took advantage of his lapse in concentration and struck. Aeron noticed this and smashed the blade away with his wrist. He then struck with his own sword, forcing Ulquiorra took jump away.

Aeron pointed at Ulquiorra. Three lines of light pulled to his finger, and then three more added to the rapidly growing sphere at the point where they met, and three more.

"_Shinsei Taiho!_ (Nova Cannon)" Aeron shouted, unleashing a roaring torrent of spiritual pressure, similar to a cero but with a different sound effect.

Ulquiorra stopped and charged his own cero, and fired it into the oncoming attack. To his surprise the attack merely ate up his cero and kept going. Ulquiorra narrowed his eyes and shot numerous bala into the blast to eat away at its power, then threw up his hands to block the attack.

Ulquiorra found himself being pushed backwards. _Such strength!_ he thought.

The blast completely engulfed him, and when it cleared up he still stood, heavily burned however.

Aeron raised an eyebrow. "You're a very durable Arrancar, aren't you, Ulquiorra Schiffer?"

"Of course. The defensive power of hollows is superior to that of Soul Reapers," Ulquiorra stated blandly.

"Oh, you mean hollow powers like these?" Aeron asked, suddenly materializing a mask on his forehead.

Ulquiorra stiffened. _What?_

Aeron drew the mask down onto his face and attacked, his strength monstrously increased. Ulquiorra found it increasingly difficult to counter his attacks, as each one was coming from a different angle. Aeron was even outpacing his own ability to perceive high speed assaults. Only his reflexes saved him each time.

Aeron whipped up his hand, lightning crackling around it. "_Denkou Shuuha! _(thunder wave)" he shouted, filling the air in front of him with a wave of lightning that unloaded a thousand painful volts of electricity into Ulquiorra.

Ulquiorra whipped up his hand and sent a cero roaring towards him. Aeron whipped his sword up and sent a blast of sub-zero power into the cero, negating it and plowing through towards the Espada.

Ulquiorra vanished from sight and reappeared next to Aeron and whipped his blade at him, but Aeron caught the blade and yanked it from his grasp. He promptly tossed the blade to the side and pointed his finger. "_Rikujo koro._ (Six point light-rod restraint)"

Six bars of light slammed into Ulquiorra's midsection, completely freezing him in place. Aeron raised his hands and stretched them apart, revealing a white sphere of light. "_Quite challenging, using a level 98 hado without declaring its name,_" he remarked.

Aeron raised the sphere and rammed it into Ulquiorra, creating an explosion of light and power and enveloping them both in a rapidly expanding blast sphere radiating the light of a thousand suns.

Ashura and Annabelle watched impassively while Ash and Anabel watched with slack-jawed wonder.

Ashura looked at them. "Now do you see? We are to captains as Captains are to regular Soul Reapers, and Aeron is to us as Captain-General Yamamoto to other captains- an anomaly among anomalies."

He turned back. "And among those with access to the spiritual world, there isn't a stronger person than himself."

Ulquiorra flew backwards out of the explosion, now burned all over by the blast. Aeron followed soon after, by comparison completely unharmed.

Ulquiorra's injuries began to glow, and they whirled out of existence, revealing him to seem almost uninjured. Aeron simply slashed at his midsection to split the Espada in two and kill him.

Ulquiorra abruptly created an energy javelin in his hand and parried the attack, straining a little against Aeron's intense strength.

Aeron raised an eyebrow. "_Oh? You can still summon these when outside of Resurreccion?_"

"Of course I can. It's just immensely difficult for me to do so. But as long as I have energy, I will always be able to create these energy javelins. And if this is your power, then my Resurreccion will be able to overpower you."

Ulquiorra pulled his sword out of the ground. "_Enclose, Murcielago!_"

Black spirit energy flooded out of the 4th Espada, coming down as black rain. Aeron watched as Ulquiorra emerged with black wings, a different robe, longer and wilder hair, wider marking under his eyes, and a different mask remnant.

Aeron regarded this new form with slight admiration. "_Wow. You look very much like a vampire_," Aeron said. "_Looks like things are going to take another turn, huh?_"

"You're right." Ulquiorra said from behind him.

"_Wha-?_" Aeron was taken completely by surprise. He whirled away, barely avoiding Ulquiorra's attack with his energy javelin. The same could not be said for his mask; Ulquiorra managed to slice off the top left section.

Aeron regarded the situation. _I couldn't follow his Sonído. Things really have taken a turn; for the worse._

Aeron moved his hand to his blade. "_Rule over the raging heavens, Tsubasa no Rai-oh!_" he shouted.

Aeron's rise in power put him roughly on par with Ulquiorra's released state, for a Resurreccíon is actually causes a greater rise in power than shikai.

Aeron and Ulquiorra rushed at each other, their weapons ready to shed blood. Aeron brought his blade down in a vertical slash, which Ulquiorra parried with his energy javelin. He then yanked his javelin away and stabbed at Aeron's chest, which Aeron blocked with a shield of ice.

Aeron jumped away and gathered wind to his sword. "_Kamaitachi!_" Aeron shouted, slashing and sending the winds towards Ulquiorra.

Ulquiorra dodged the deadly winds and hurled an energy javelin directly at Aeron, which Aeron split in two. Aeron leapt back and unleashed a volley of icicles to skewer Ulquiorra. Ulquiorra created another javelin and waved it in a circle, leaving more javelins in its wake. Ulquiorra slashed, and the javelins shot at the icicles and atomized them.

Ulquiorra appeared directly in front of Aeron, a black cero forming at his fingertips. Aeron responded by powering up his Shinsei Taiho attack. The two blasted each other, and both attacks were cancelled out.

Aeron flash-stepped rapidly around Ulquiorra, leaving behind many afterimages to confuse the Espada. As he did so, he thought, _I can't remove the seals on my ring in rapid succession. I thought that this would be enough to oppose him, but I underestimated his strength. It'll take another hour before I'm able to initiate another seal removal. I'm not sure that I'll last that long at this rate…_

He suddenly noticed Ulquiorra taking to the air, his hand wreathed in lightning. He pointed at Aeron, and uttered "_Relampago esmeralda! _(Emerald lightning)_"_

The lightning leapt from his hand and arced towards Aeron. Aeron sighed and raised his sword. "_Maybe you shouldn't try hitting me with my own powers_," Aeron gently advised. He closed his eyes, and his sword began resonating with his spiritual pressure. He waved his sword, and the lightning arced into it, absorbed by Aeron's emerald blade.

Ulquiorra was quite surprised by this. _What was that?_ Ulquiorra wondered, frowning. _I never knew about that sort of thing before!_

_"Don't try lightning on me,_" Aeron restated. He pointed his sword at Ulquiorra, and it immediately began crackling with golden lightning. "_I'll only throw it back at you with greater force!"_

_"Raikou Amimono!_ (Lightning Web)" Aeron shouted, and grasped his wrist with his free hand. He tensed his body and fired a web of gold lightning at Ulquiorra, many times stronger than what Ulquiorra threw at him. Ulquiorra got a nasty shock from the attack, burning through his robe and hierro in some places.

Ulquiorra simply regerated his wounds. He took to the air and waved his hand. Numerous energy javelins formed in front of him, all lined up in a row.

"_Los Miles Jabalinas! _(Thousand Javelins)" Ulquiorra uttered. The Espada waved his hand again, and the javelins all began rushing at Aeron, replaced by more as they left their places, which soon followed the others.

Aeron whipped his blade back, gathering arcs of icy energy to his sword. "_Hama Hyouketsu! _(Freezing Magic Wave)"

Aeron slashed at Ulquiorra with his sword, sending a massive wave of icy energy at Ulquiorra's javelins, freezing them all in a massive glacier. The blast continued freezing its way towards Ulquiorra, threatning to freeze him, too.

Ulquiorra vanished in a blur of supersonic speed. He reappeared in the sky, and whipped his hand to the side. A massive storm cloud formed out of his black spiritual pressure, blocking out the bright, sunny day.

"_Tormenta de la Sentencia!_ (Storm of Judgement)" Ulquiorra declared. The storm immediately began unleashing lightning bolts from its pitch-black expanse, all arcing towards Aeron.

Aeron waved his sword parallel to the ground, causing a large amount of water to spread across the ground. Aeron then pointed his sword skyward, causing the water to whip into numerous whirlpools, growing larger and the velocity in their waters growing faster.

"_Uzumaki Kyouran!_ (Whirlpool Frenzy)" Aeron shouted, and twisted his sword 90 degrees to the right. The whirlpools leapt skyward, albeit still tethered to the ground, and smashed into the lightning bolts, battling it out to a stalemate.

Ulquiorra also got enveloped by a whirlpool, and was struggling to escape when he suddenly noticed that Aeron hadn't disipated the sheet of water on the ground.

Aeron looked at the Espada. "_Hopefully this ends here, because you're actually a pretty tough guy._" Aeron said, swinging his blade into a reverse grip that he held above his head. "_So, unfortunately for you, I can't take it easy on you._"

"_Ikazuchi Chikara!_ (Thunder Force)" Aeron shouted, his blade enveloped with the power of thousands upon millions of volts.

Aeron sank on one knee and stabbed his blade into the ground, releasing all the electricity in his blade. It shot through all the water and conducted all the way into Ulquiorra and his own attacks, eliminating his attacks and lighting the unfortunate Espada up like a lightbulb.

Ash and Anabel watched this in slack-jawed wonder. Ashura and Annabelle regarded this with a hint of admiration.

"Geez, he's a fighting machine!" Ash commented.

"That's Aeron for you; always able to overcome the impossible," Annabelle said.

Aeron simply looked up at the smoke his attacks had generated. "_Don't start celebrating yet, guys_."

"Huh?" Ash and Anabel were confused.

"_It's not over_."

The smoke floated away, revealing a heavily injured Ulquiorra, but still released.

"What? That didn't defeat him?" Ash yelled. Ashura and Annabelle were visibly shocked as well; they had thought that Aeron would have vaporized Ulquiorra in the blast, too, or at least knock him back to sealed state.

Ulquiorra gazed down at him. "Your power is impressive, Aeron Solo," Ulquiorra acknowledged. He began emanating his spiritual pressure, black with a green outline, which began whipping around him like a vortex. "I never thought that I would have to resort to this level of power," Ulquiorra admitted, and he quickly became enveloped in the whirling maelstorm.

Aeron looked at Ulquiorra. "So you have achieved _that_ release."

"Oh, yes. I have." Ulquiorra agreed. The whirlwind blasted away, revealing Ulquiorra in a form with black fur on his legs, a long whip-like tail, dark green sclera and yellow irises, horn-like mask remnants, fur on his arms, and clawed hands and feet. His hollow hole had widened, and had a mark underneath it suggesting that it was dripping a black liquid, much like his tear marks, which had divided into two streams each and were black.

"_Resurreccion Segunda Etapa,_" Ulquiorra declared.

Aeron whipped up his sword, but Ulquiorra was instantly in front of him. He tore at Aeron with his claws, but the shinigami responded by leaping away and carving the area where Ulquiorra stood with a large upheaval of stalagmite-like ice formations.

Ulquiorra jumped away and sped behind Aeron, and attacked again, this time with a crackling shaft of lightning. Aeron blocked the spear head-on with his sword, and the two strained against each other. Ultimately, Aeron lost the contest of strength, and Ulquiorra hurled him all the way to where the others stood.

Ashura and Annabelle grabbed their two companions and flash-stepped away barely before Aeron smashed into their former standing place, creating a huge impact crater at ground zero. Aeron groaned and looked up to see Ulquiorra, his lance held high and poised to throw.

"_Lanza del Relampago!_" Ulquiorra shouted, hurling the lance straight at Aeron. Aeron whipped up his sword and enveloped himself in a protective glacier of ice, knowing full well what was about to happen.

_KA-BOOOOOOMMMM!_

Ulquiorra's attack exploded in a truly enormous explosion, reaching high into the sky. All saw the blast from miles away, and knew that somewhere there was a titanic battle raging on.

Aeron allowed his glacier to melt away, having been almost blown completely away in the blast. He grimaced, sensing that his power was beginning to diminish. Aeron had an almost limitless supply of spirit energy, but he was using it up more than he could produce it. He had exhausted his reserves within his body, and was now limited to what he could produce. Aeron felt the intense reiatsu that Ulquiorra was emitting, and knew that there was no way he could win at this stage. He would have to use his Bankai to truly defeat Ulquiorra, but he didn't want to use it, because he had taken great precautions to keep Aizen from knowing what his Bankai could do.

Still, there was a way to end the fight without using any of his other powers...

Aeron raced at Ulquiorra, his reiatsu leaping from his blade as lightning. Ulquiorra simply caught the blade and yanked it from Aeron's grasp, tossing it carelessly into the ground.

"It's pointless to resist," Ulquiorra proclaimed, pointing at Aeron. A black cero formed. "_Cero Oscuras!_" he shouted, blasting Aeron with its power.

Aeron didn't jump away from the blast, nor did he try to counter the blast with his own. Ulquiorra looked impassively at the smoke that the blast had produced.

Suddenly, a hand wrapped in an armor of ice burst out of the cloud and latched onto Ulquiorra's shoulder. Ulquiorra was quite startled, and saw Aeron emerge from the cloud, covered all over except for his eyes in ice. Aeron held up his hand, which shone with a green light.

"45th of the Forbidden Spell: _Jikanteishi!_ (Temporal stasis)" Aeron shouted.

Ulquiorra froze as time was halted around his body. Aeron leapt away and waved his hands, which whirled yellow light around the two Espada. "46th of the Forbidden Spell: _Kūkanten'i!_ (Spatial Displacement)"

The two flashed, and got spirited off to someplace else. Aeron wavered on his feet, then collapsed as the energy drain caught up with him.

Ashura and Annabelle flash-stepped to his side and caught him before he hit the ground. Aeron's hollow mask shattered, dissipating into the wind.

Ash and Anabel ran over. "What was that spell, Aeron?" Ash asked.

"I used two, actually. The first was the 45th of the Forbidden spells, _Jikanteishi, _which halts time in a specific area. The stronger the person being frozen, and the more they resist, the more energy it takes to maintain the spell. Then there was the 46th, _Kūkanten'i,_ which cuts out a certain portion of space and transports it to another area. Right now, those two are back in Hueco Mundo. Which reminds me," he added, opening his hands to reveal a purple light. "57th of the Forbidden Spell: _Toransu-Jigen Fuusa!_ (Trans-Dimensional lockdown)"

The purple sphere flashed and flared outwards, painting everything with a soft purple light. The light vanished after a moment, and Aeron sagged even further down in his friends' grip.

"What now?" Ash asked, now visibly worried about Aeron.

"I used that spell to close off trans-dimensional travel, or travel via dimensional distortions. Now, for approximately one hour, nothing can move between the dimensions. That includes using Garganta, Senkaimon, or Kūkanten'i. Essentially, they can't get back."

"Will that be the last we'll see of them for a while?" Anabel asked.

"I don't think so, Anabel," Annabelle answered. "If Sosuke Aizen is truly involved, then we can expect that this is only one battle in a titanic war to come."

"So yeah, we're probably gonna see them again," Ashura said. He looked at the glum faces of the two youngest there and laughed. "Cheer up! You already saw it once; we can beat them! Trust me, we won't let them win this war."

"Unfortunately," Aeron yawned loudly as he said this, "Using these spells in this level of power exacted a huge drain on my power. I need some time, _yawn,_ to...re...co...ver...good night..._zzzsnore..._"

There was a pause.

"And I thought Axel was the lazy one," Ashura remarked, setting Aeron down.

"Wait, did he just conk out on us?" Ash yelled.

Ashura nodded. " 'With great power comes great need to take a nap', says Nico from Percy Jackson and the Olympians. Aeron is no exception."

Ash sighed and sat down. "Better get used to this, huh?"

" 'fraid so, Ash," Annabelle said. The who-knows-how-old girl sat down and opened Aeron's cooler, and grabbed another sandwich with telekinesis. "So, wanna finish lunch?"


	11. The things he doesn't reveal

Although he was technically unconscious, Aeron's mind continued to drift, lost in the echoes of his past. Memories of countless battles…terrible losses…the burden of countless secrets…and the happy times. The ones of his friends. His Pokemon.

His own little "family".

And above all, one name repeated itself over and over, echoing most loudly in the darkness. _Hanna…Hanna…Hanna…_

* * *

"Oy! Wake up, Aeron!"

Aeron blinked at a harsh light shining in his eyes. He was aware of two suns shining overhead, amongst a layer of clouds.

_Two?_ He wondered. Then he felt a special breeze, one that felt like a breath of power rustling past him, and realized where he was.

"So that's where I am," Aeron commented, turning towards the one who had spoken to him.

Sitting on a stump was a boy in his very-late teens with black hair, but enough of it was tinged gold so that his hair appeared golden on the very edges. He let a lock dangle between his eyes, much like Aeron did, but it was shaped into a lightning bolt-like fashion. He wore green robes, with gold lining on the inside, but they were stylized differently from Aeron's, signified by having long, thinner sleeves and being more form-fitting. To be honest, it looked more like a combination of Ulquiorra Schiffer's standard robe and Ichigo's Bankai robe. Dangling from his hip was a sword identical to Aeron's own. Dark green bracers adorned his arms, patterned with lightning bolt designs.

The figure shifted so that he faced Aeron a little more. "Welcome back to this world, Aeron."

"Rai-oh." Aeron said, smiling warmly. "How have things been in this lonely world?"

"Not too bad. Actually, it's not too lonely here, given that you never go without giving me a sense of purpose." Rai-oh stood up, stretching. His brilliant emerald eyes focused on Aeron. "What troubles you now, my friend?"

Aeron was surprised. "Wouldn't you know? You're always in my head."

Rai-oh smiled wryly. "I cannot do much but go by vague impressions. To see what troubles you is one thing. To understand what you see is another altogether."

Aeron sighed. "Now I understand how people feel when I reason them into a corner," he remarked. Rai-oh laughed, then quieted down and motioned for Aeron to begin.

"Cipher is back, Rai-oh. And they're stronger than ever."

"How so?" Rai-oh asked, cocking his head to the side, an expression of puzzlement on his face.

"They've recruited the Espada to their cause, and I suspect that Aizen himself has risen from that wretched lair he hid himself in. He's at his strongest, not splitting his power to make those lackeys that fought us before. And I can't prove it, but I suspect he has the powers of a Divine on his side."

"Divine that use their powers for evil can mean only one thing, can they?" Rai-oh asked.

"Yes. If one Divine creates too much of a disturbance in a world, then space and time will be damaged."

"And when the reverse world moves to correct it…"

"Then it will correct too much. The dimensionally displaced will return."

"And so, the Forbidden will rise once more, won't they?" Rai-oh asked.

Aeron nodded and looked at the sky. "Ash truly has no idea what world he will be plunged into. When this war begins, and Aizen himself ascends to battle as a Divine,"

"Then all hell will break loose," Rai-oh concluded. Then he took a slightly cheeky look. "Although, that's not _all_ that is on your mind, is it?"

"Huh?" Aeron was rather startled.

"Don't hide it. You're thinking about your love interest, the Bladesinger girl."

Aeron's face turned as red as a tomato. This was a pretty awkward situation. "Um…"

Rai-oh smirked, although it was more friendly than it was smug. "See? You're just smitten with that girl. You didn't even deny your feelings."

Rai-oh clapped Aeron on the shoulder. "There is nothing wrong with your love, Aeron. I have to admit, she is a rather pretty girl. And you ARE very close friends, after all."

"Yeah, but there IS something wrong with another close one." Aeron grinned. "That lazy bum I have for a brother…I really have to do something about him."

Rai-oh raised an eyebrow. "That is true, but remember that he is also a reflection of what _you_ could become if you're not careful. Anyway, are you just trying to change the subject?"

"Yes. Is it working?"

"No."

"Aw." Aeron's face fell. "Why do you like placing me in awkward situations?"

"Because you're very entertaining when you are in an awkward situation," Rai-oh said with a smug smirk.

"My Zanpaku-to is sadistic," said Aeron. "Help me, please."

Rai-oh lifted a finger, and a lightning bolt arced out of it.

"WHOA!" Aeron yelped, barely dodging it.

"WHAT WAS THAT FOR?" he yelled at his Zanpakuto, who was laughing.

"You're very entertaining when you're stressed out, too," Rai-oh informed him.

Aeron collapsed. "Of all people I could've ended up with for my existence, I have to get one that likes to torture me. I'm gonna die..."

"Just completing the 'sadistic' image," said Rai-oh.

"Why, Rai-oh? Why?"

"Okay, I get bored here, so I have to find a way to have fun in SOME way, right? Although," he conceded, looking at the sky and stroking his imaginary beard thoughtfully, "I might be able to do it in a way less...torturous to you, I admit."

"Why couldn't this guy settle for a game of soccer?" groaned Aeron. "He's as bad as my brother's Pikachu." He immediately got a lightning bolt for his troubles.

"I object to that statement!" Rai-oh protested. "I am NOTHING like that little yellow rodent!"

"Really? Your similarity is rather "shocking" to me," Aeron said, looking at him from the ground.

"Ha-ha, hilarious," Rai-oh said, his voice dripping with sarcasm. "Did you make that up yourself?"

"Yeah, I did. Aren't I a comedian?"

He had to jump away from a storm of lightning bolts that Rai-oh fired at him in annoyance.

"Why do you always resort to violence, man?" Aeron asked.

"Because you deserve it."

His response was a right uppercut to the chin, charged with electricity and aided by wind. "OW!"

"WHY DID YOU GO TO VIOLENCE, THEN?" Rai-oh yelled, pretty pissed off now.

"Because you deserve it."

Rai-oh opened his mouth to respond, then realized that he had no comeback. "Now I know what you feel when I place you in a no-response situation."

"I know. Isn't it great?"

Aeron was forced to dodge a flurry of ice shuriken.

"Okay," Rai-oh said, sitting down. "I've had enough of that."

"Good," Aeron muttered. He laid down, and asked, "Why am I here right now, Rai-oh?"

Rai-oh shrugged. "Your guess is as good as mine."

"Then, if you don't mind, I'm going to sleep for a while, okay?" Aeron asked.

"Go right ahead. You're supposed to be asleep, anyway. I am going to ponder things for awhile."

"Right..." Aeron muttered, allowing himself to fall asleep.

* * *

**Time: Many trillions of years ago**

**Place: Somewhere in the fringe of what is known today as the Petalburg woods**

"What is your name?"

An very pretty girl with red-orange hair was talking to a young boy with jet-black hair. She had crystal-blue eyes, and wore a flowered blue dress. He (the boy, I mean) wore green robes with golden lining. Oddly, he had a daito at his hip, sheathed in a brilliant emerald scabbard.

The boy opened one eye to look at her, and then closed it again. He was seated so that he leaned against a tree in a relaxed position. "Why do you need to know?"

"Come on, you saved my life yesterday, and I don't even know your name. I can't thank you properly if I don't know it." The girl was seated upright, braiding blades of grass into something the boy couldn't see.

The boy sighed and shifted a little. After a few moments of silence, he opened his eyes and, not looking at her, said, "I don't have one."

The girl stopped what she was doing and looked up in surprise. "Of course you do! Everyone has a name!"

"Then what's yours?" the boy asked, directing his gaze at her. The girl shivered a little; something about those brilliant emerald eyes was rather unnerving when they were looking directly in hers.

"Why should I tell you that?" the girl asked, putting aside the work made of grass so that she could talk without distraction.

"Well, seeing that I can't tell you my name, I'm going to have to mandatorily go by "the wierd boy in green" when in third person, or something like that. Since you don't seem like you're going to stop trying to find me after today, it would be nice to know your name so that I don't have to refer to you as "you" in second person all the time, and the "pretty girl in blue" in third person."

The girl blushed slightly from his description of her. _Did he really mean that? _she wondered, giving a thought to why he would bring it up that way. Then she shrugged it off; it was a nice compliment. "Very well. If you must know, I am Hanna Bladesinger."

* * *

**Back in the Present:**

Aeron blinked at the sun. _Wow, how long have I been out?_ he wondered.

He sat up, and saw that they were in a different place of the woods. _Hmm. They must have dragged me here,_ he mused.

His thoughts turned to his dream. _Why did I dream about the day I learned who Hanna was?_ he wondered. _I don't just dream what happened in the past for nothing._

Aeron blushed a little at the thought of Hanna. _Hanna..._

He had to admit. He _was_ totally head over heels about her. He remembered her face, her grace, her laugh, her kindness...

Her death glares...Aeron shivered at that thought. _Better stray away from that thought._

Besides all that, he also remembered what a fearsome fighter she could be.

Then again, aren't all Jedi like that?

Aeron stood, shaking off fatigue. _It's no good fantasizing about her all the time,_ he told himself for what seemed like the bazillionth time. _She just isn't interested._

_Or is she?_ a voice, his own, asked, teasing him.

_Great. I suppose I've really lost it. I'm hearing voices in my head,_ Aeron thought.

_Come on, Aeron, maybe she IS interested. You've never really checked, have you?_ the voice crooned to him.

_Shut up! _Aeron thought, really annoyed.

_What's the hurt in trying? This love has been a thorn in your side since the first time you laid eyes upon her, so why not try to see if it gets anywhere?_

_GET LOST! I DON'T NEED THIS KIND OF CRAP FROM **ANY **VOICE IN MY HEAD, LEAST OF ALL MY OWN! _Aeron thought at the voice.

_I'll concede for now, but you know I'm right,_ the voice said, and left.

Aeron sighed and rubbed his temples. _Geez. I guess a lot of people love to bug me, even my own head,_ he thought to himself.

**WARNING: (Axel Nightblazer infiltrating Aeron Solo's story) Turn back NOW or you'll...uh...become a very sad person.**

**(Aeron Solo, Author): Dude, stick to writing in your own stories.**

**(Axel Nightblazer, author): Taking into consideration my profile, you're quite a hypocrit.**

He turned around and saw the others playing some kind of board game.

"Hey guys, what game are you playing?" Aeron asked, walking over.

"A game," Annabelle replied, making her move.

"Yeah, I know, but _which...?_" _Wait. _Aeron suddenly paused to consider what had been said, because for some reason it rang a bell.

_Game, game, game, the game, The Game...AW CRAP!_

_"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!_" Aeron screamed, clutching his head in the classic horror pose. Everyone within about fifteen (thousand) miles froze and looked in that direction.

Actually, this escaped through some random time-space portal and got transported to a long time ago in a galaxy far, far, away...

* * *

_"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!_"

In Cloud City, Bespin, Luke Skywalker and Darth Tater-er, _Vader-_ were having their lightsaber duel when this happened.

Both paused. "Did you hear something?" Luke asked.

"...I am not sure. It seems like somebody is screaming. Why, I have no idea."

They both stood around in awkward silence for a few moments. Then, "Let us continue with your defeat," Vader said.

"It's you who's going to fall today!" Luke shouted, and they began fighting fiercely. Again.

* * *

The others paused and looked at Aeron in shock.

"Aeron? What's wrong?" Anabel asked.

"_I LOST THE GAME!_" Aeron sobbed.

All four of them froze in horror, realizing what he just said.

"_No!_" Anabel shouted, slamming her fist on the ground in frustration. "I haven't lost in _five years!_"

"Forget that!" yelled Ashura. "I haven't lost in five _million_ years!"

Aeron suddenly felt a tap on his shoulder. He turned to see Annabelle smiling at him.

"Oh, Annabelle, wait...it's not like I meant-"

KA-RACKKKKKK!

_It's a one-hit KO!_

Aeron slumped to the ground, having been knocked out by the super-slap.

Annabelle slumped against a tree. "I can't believe that Eddie forced us to play that stupid game that he invented."

"Well, he did have a talent for making the rest of us become infuriated," Ashura noted.

"On a side note, how did you two find out about the game?" Annabelle asked.

"Aeron got me to play it. I have regretted it ever since," Anabel said.

"Anabel got _me_ to play it. And I really wish that I didn't find out," Ash said.

Ashura sighed. "Well, given how loud Aeron is, I suppose we won't be the only ones to Lose."

Boy, were they right.

* * *

**A Long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away...**

Luke had just had his hand cut off by Vader, and was being held at saber-point.

"Obi-wan never told you what happened to your father," Vader noted.

"He told me enough!" Luke replied, climbing onto the piece of machinery that hung over a wide-open space.

"He told me YOU killed him!"

"No, Luke. **I** am your father."

Luke stared at him in shock. "No, no, that's impossible!"

"Look in your heart, and you'll know it is true," Vader said.

Luke stared. "This is really strange..." he commented.

Vader considered. "Yes, I suppose it is," he agreed. "Now..."

"_I LOST THE GAME!_"

Both froze when they heard this statement. They knew _exactly_ what it meant.

"_NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!_" they both screamed.

**After a bit...**

"Join me, Luke, and we can rule the galaxy, and bring justice to the one who made us Lose!" Vader said, now pretty pissed off.

Luke, however, had fainted from the shock and fell into the gap.

Vader stared down into the abyss. "Well, I suppose I will have to bring justice to that one myself," he mused, deactivating his lightsaber and walking away.

* * *

**Back with our heroes...**

Ashura sighed. "Well, I suppose we'll have to stay here, since he's out again."

"You're right. And thanks to you, we'll be able to eliminate Aeron Solo!" they heard.

"What? Who's there?" Ashura asked, spinning around.

"Us. Espada no. 9, Aaronierro Arruruerie, and our contingent of Cipher Peons," a masked man with a wierd coat said.

"And me, Espada no. 6! Grimmjow Jeagerjaquez!" a light-blue haired man with a mask remnant on the left side of his mouth, with teeth shouted. He had an open jacket, and a hollow-hole in his abdomen.

"And me as well, Espada no. 5! Nnoitra Jiruga!" shouted a man with black hair. He had a spoon-like hood, and an eye-patch.

Ashura looked around. "Great. Surrounded," he muttered.

Ash and Anabel brought out their Pokeballs, readying their pokemon for battle.

Annabelle drew her sword. "Protect Aeron," she told the others. "He is at his most vulnerable when unconscious. And his Hierro won't protect him for too long against Espada."

A rainstorm whipped up, and dark clouds moved across the sky, blocking the sun.

"Now that that's taken care of," Aaroierro said, throwing off his mask to reveal a handsome face and black hair, and drew his sword, "I'll be able to fight you with all I've got!"

As more and more foes poured into the area, Ashura and the others braced themselves for the battle about to break out.

* * *

_Aeron Solo: I'm sorry to all who suffered because of this chapter, but I just had to insert The Game. I play The Game, you see, so I thought I would insert it to make the characters bring hillarity, and suffering, to the story. As you noticed, Aeron is much more complicated than I originally let on. I will touch on more about Hanna and Aeron's other friends later. _

_Till then,_

_Aeron Solo wuz here_


	12. Holdups

Hi, readers,

I am sad to announce that I may be pausing further work on Rise of the Forbidden because of the following factors:

1) I have way too many people waiting for my next chapter of another fanfic of mine, Relics of the Past for me to ignore it

2) I'm a little busy these days, and don't have as much time to work on it as before

3) I am actually considering giving Rise of the Forbidden a major overhaul. There are tons of things that I would've liked to have done with this story now that I look back on it. I can majorly improve the story, but it'll come at the expense of no further updates for a very long time indeed until I get past where it's at. Otherwise, it'll just get confusing.

Sorry for the delay, and I assure you I will do everything in my power to get it done. Thank you.

Aeron Solo wuz here


	13. Announcement

Dear readers,

I am both happy and sad to announce that this current storyline is as of now discontinued. I am slightly annoyed with my own work as I have come a long way in writing and thinking, and looking back I realize that what I have wrote won't make too much sense with what I have planned out.

Therefore, I will discontinue Rise of the Forbidden.

BUT WAIT! THERE'S MORE!

I have decided to put Relics of the Past on hiatus because I want to finish get the work that started my work and Axel Nightblazer's

It does not mean I will continue what I have written so far.

It means that I am going to publish a NEW SERIES of stories.

The Rise of the Forbidden TRILOGY

Book 1: Darkforce Rising coming soon to fanfiction

Till then,

Aeron Solo wuz here


	14. Rewrite is up!

Hi all so sorry that I was gone for so long I got the first 2 chapters of the rewrite up. Called "Rise of the Forbidden: Book 1 Darkforce Rising" or something like that. Same categories as this story; bleach/pokemon crossover. This is also taking me awhile, but I am already feeling much better about it.

Cheers, and since summer is approaching I hope I can blitz the chapters like my bro!

Aeron Solo wuz here


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